Monsters in the Closet
by RobinRocks
Summary: Something is attacking ships down at the docks and it's the Titans' job to find out what. Trouble is, Robin might have found a little too much… COMPLETE.
1. I

This is a strange and random little idea of mine that I have been toying with for a while. Well, okay, let me clarify; _mpreg_ is something I have been toying with for a while.

Why?

Well, for one thing, it's just plain screwy. Who _actually_ came up with it? Secondly, there is no actual mpreg in the _Teen Titans_ section. Or, at least, if you type "mpreg" into the summary/title search bar for the _TT_ section, you get nothing. Actually, I lie; I found one where _Cyborg_ was pregnant, but it was some wacky dream that either Robin or Terra had (I can't remember which it was) and it was literally a one-liner thing. I typed it in out of curiosity to see how many would come up, considering the ridiculous amount of it in both the _Harry Potter_ and _Fullmetal Alchemist_ sections.

But there is nada. Which surprises me, considering how popular this section is, and also the random pairings you can get (I have come across Beast BoyxJohnny Rancid, RobinxSilkie and SladexArella, to start with…), so… there being no mpreg is something I find weird. There are actually _weirder_ things in this section (RobinxSilkie, I kid you not. Put them into the character filters and see what comes up, 'cause I'm not making it up…).

So I always thought that maybe _I_ would give it a go, but I could never come up with anything. I can't be bothered with a stupid boyxboy love story (uh, yeah, _Small Print_ is **not** a love story…), and then explaining how it happened, blahblahblah. I thought very briefly about RobinxSlade, and then got realistic and thought… _nah_…

Then, a little something called _Batman Black and White #4_, printed in September 1996, fell into my hands. In it are five tiny little "one-shots", drawn all in black and white (like you didn't see _that_ one coming); their names are _An Innocent Guy_, _The Third Mask_, _Heroes_, _Leavetaking_, and the one that gave me the inspiration for this:

_Monsters in the Closet._ Written by Jan Strnad (that is spelt correctly, and it's a man) and drawn by Kevin Nowlan. It's not the greatest _Batman_ strip ever. But I read it and was like "OMG… _inspiration_!". Anyone who has read it will see the distinct similarities – the _comic_ is not mpreg, BTW, but I kinda borrowed the setting and circumstance.

This little fic – seven chapters at the most – also takes inspiration from _Angel_, _Futurama_ and even my own fic, the yet-to-be-put-up _Remember the Titans_ (plug alert; sequel to _Black Magic_ and _Asylum_). It's not a direct rip-off of anything, but you may recognize a few little things.

I am afraid that it is rather predictable and won't hold very many – if any – surprises. However, I thank you for reading and hope you enjoy it anyhow. I guess it's not _really_ mpreg, but it's close enough, I think. Like I said in the summary, there isn't a pairing.

Oh, and my "mpreg" victim?

_Robin_, of course.

That whore.

One final note: This is set somewhere in Season Three, after _X_ but before the whole _Cyborg/Brother Blood/Titans East_ thing.

_Monsters in the Closet_ – I

"You _promise_ no more swimming in sewers?" Beast Boy spluttered, hauling himself out of the manhole with a little help from Cyborg; the green shape-shifter spat out a mouthful of sewer water and shook the excess from his hair.

"I'd have thought you'd feel at home down there, B," Cyborg grinned, "what with your room the way it is. I'm surprised you can even tell the difference…"

"_Hey!_ I'll have you know that I've been paddling in sewers so much recently, even _turpentine_ can't entirely get rid of the smell, never mind shower gel…"

"Aw, shut up…"

"We can't stop searching, Beast Boy," Robin cut in, not looking up from the screen of his communicator. "Not until we find what it is that's attacking the boats off the docks."

"It would help if we knew _what_ we were looking for…" Raven muttered darkly from beneath her hood.

"Perhaps Aqualad might be able to shed some light upon this situation?" Starfire stated, her tone inquiring. "I believe that he knows these waters better than any of us may claim to, even Beast Boy…"

"I've already contacted him," Robin replied coolly. "He says he hasn't seen anything suspicious, but he'll keep a lookout."

"I'm willing to bet it's that Trident guy," Beast Boy murmured, pulling off one of his shoes and turning it upside down, emptying a small river onto the sidewalk. "Sounds like the kinda stunt he'd pull. That's what he did before, right? Stealing nuclear waste from ships?"

"That's what Aqualad said too." Robin scratched his hairline thoughtfully, still with his gaze on his communicator. "But Aqualad _also_ said that you and he, Beast Boy, shut Trident and all his clones up in an underwater cave _months_ ago."

"Maybe he got out?"

"Maybe." Robin shrugged. "Well, Aqualad said that he and the Titans East would try to help out, but seeing as they're right over in Steel City now, I can't see them making any headway." He snapped his communicator shut like a compact mirror. "Guess it's up to us, team."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it is _our_ city…"

"Right, and that's why we can't give up and go home, not when we have a case. Let's split up and cover the city; you know what we're looking for."

"Yeah, some kind of sea monster, apparently," Raven said jadedly.

"Don't sea monsters generally live in the _sea_, _not_ in the middle of a city?" Beast Boy pointed out, latching on to Raven's sarcasm.

Robin bit his lip.

"I have a weird feeling it's not a _sea monster_ we're after. The traces that have been left behind at all of the attack scenes haven't been entirely… _organic_."

"You think some nutjob is playing Dr Frankenstein?" Cyborg asked, frowning.

"Not sure. That's why we have to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. We just don't know what we're up against."

The rest of the Teen Titans nodded in agreement with their leader.

"Okay, Beast Boy, check out the docks again," Robin ordered. "Cyborg, take the Upper East Side and work down. Raven, same but with the west. Star, you check out Downtown."

"'Bout you?" Cyborg asked as the other three nodded and each took to the night sky in their own way.

Robin drew his cape around his shoulders as he turned away.

"What's _left_."

"You sure, man?" Cyborg sounded worried.

Robin looked over his shoulder, smirking.

"_Please_, Cyborg. Remember who I _am_? Who I used to _work_ with?"

He started to walk away, snapping out his staff and extending it.

"I _specialize_ in abandoned buildings and dark back-alleys…"

Cyborg shrugged as he watched his friend go.

He couldn't really _argue_ with _Batman's_ sidekick.

**TT**

"Anything?"

"Diddly," Cyborg replied wearily through the speaker of the comm.

Robin sighed.

"Me neither, and neither have any of the others…"

"Should we call it a night?"

Robin ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"I don't like to, but I suppose we'd better. Get some rest, get something to eat. We'll just have to start over in the morning."

Cyborg nodded, his image on the tiny screen flickering a little.

"Yeah, it's getting late. See you back at the tower?"

"Yeah. I shouldn't be long."

"Should I pick up some pizza?"

Robin pulled a face.

"We've had pizza three nights in a row."

"Chinese, then?"

"Okay. You know everyone's usual, anyway, right?"

"Uh-huh. Catch ya later then, man."

Cyborg's link was terminated and the image of the tall cybernetic teen winked out, presenting Robin with a blank screen. He snapped his comm. shut again and looked up.

If Jump City had a "bad" side, then _this_ was that "bad" side of town. The buildings were old, crumbling, some _beyond_ even disrepair. Crumbling, covered in moss, ivy and obscene graffiti. People stood in doorways and made little deals – exchanging paper for paper; money for drugs. Heroin in little paper packets.

It was against the law; but Robin was a little preoccupied to be chasing heroin addicts right now.

Chasing heroin addicts was something the Teen Titans did when the crime rate in Jump City temporarily plummeted.

And they shied into the shadows when they saw him; he might be small and skinny, dressed in pretty colors, but Robin was Robin.

Sidekick of Batman. Leader of the Titans.

You didn't mess with him.

Likewise, the gangs of street kids – mostly older than him – that were the kind who mugged old ladies and beat up younger kids for milk money eyed him warily. If he were dressed in civilian clothes – and maskless – they would probably jump him and attempt to mug him. Maybe beat him to a pulp.

But they didn't touch him. Didn't even inch nearer to him – if anything, they moved _away_.

They were afraid of the _uniform_.

But funnier still… there were scarier things than _him_ out there.

Scarier than _Batman_.

And here, on the "bad" side of town… he felt strangely at home. It reminded him of Gotham City.

The street he was on now was completely deserted. He was starting to wish he'd brought his R-cycle but the Titans had taken this venture on foot, in fear of missing anything vital they might not spot by car or motorcycle. Of course, that wasn't a problem for Beast Boy, Raven or Starfire.

It was he and Cyborg who had to traipse for miles on aching feet.

And speaking of, he started down that street, tugging his cape further around his shoulders to keep out the cold. He had long since put his staff away, knowing in his gut he wasn't going to need it tonight. He walked along, his head bowed, deep in thought; the only thing that snapped him out of his analytical reverie was sudden small _splashing_ sound coming from behind him.

Startled, he whipped around, his fists clenched, his entire body coiled, ready to defend himself—

There was nothing behind him. He looked around warily, listening intently, but there was no evidence of anything ever being behind him at all.

Eventually he relaxed his stance, casting his eyes down to the sidewalk. It was there that he found the source of the mysterious splashing.

On the street, reflecting the dim, flickering light of a rather pathetic streetlight, was a small puddle of some kind of green-tinted liquid.

That _hadn't_ been there when he had walked past the spot only seconds before. So what; it had just dropped out of the sky? He looked up and immediately found his source; a drainpipe suspended high above on the roof of the tall, abandoned building that stretched up into the night sky.

Or… _was_ it so abandoned?

Abandoned buildings didn't suddenly spit drainage out onto the sidewalk.

Robin crouched down to take a better look at what had made its new home on the pavement.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

It wasn't water. Not even green-tinted water. It was… _slime_? Green slime, with little bits of… he couldn't identify what those little bits were, nor was he sure he even _wanted_ to.

But that wasn't the _worst_ of it. The _worst_ of it… was that fact that there was some kind of little creature sprawled within the slime.

Some kind of little creature unlike _anything_ he had ever seen before.

It gave a tiny weak little writhing movement within its bedding of slime and he grimaced as he put out his hand – even through gloves – to pick it up. He gingerly lifted it out of the slime between his thumb and forefinger, feeling its tiny bird-like ribcage through paper-thin skin.

He laid it out on his gloved palm and squinted at it, wiping the coating of slime away with his finger. It was hideous; alien-like, with large, filmy eyes on either side of its round head, a row of tiny pointed teeth, a minute torso, through the amphibian-like skin of which he could both see and feel the ribcage and spine. It had two long, thin, awkward little arms ending with long webbed fingers, but had no back legs – its lower body dissolved into a long, thin tail that dropped off the edge of Robin's hand with its length.

It was not a creature created by Mother Nature.

It sickened him; but what sickened him more – and this was confirmed as the wretched thing gave another weak writhe in his palm – was the fact that someone had _created_ such a thing.

Something that had no place in this world.

He felt a tiny pang of pity for the creature too; the poor thing was obviously dying.

So it was no good to someone anymore.

So they had gotten rid of it.

Out of the drainage system.

Which meant…

…that _someone_ was in the building.

Robin took another look at the tiny thing. Hooking his little finger underneath one of its webbed hands to see it better.

And it hit him.

That he had _found_ what they were looking for.

He had suspicions that what they were looking for had been created by someone who, as Cyborg has said, was "playing Dr Frankenstein"; the thing was attacking ships off the docks, meaning it dwelled in water.

_This thing _had been created by someone "playing Dr Frankenstein"; and it had webbed fingers and a long tail, ideal for swimming. He wasn't blaming this _particular_ creation – the miserable creature obviously wasn't the culprit, being too small, weak and near-dead to attack _anything_, never mind an entire ship – but maybe the person who had created _this_…

…was responsible for the creature in the marina too. Perhaps another throwaway that had not been quite as dead as its creator had first thought – perhaps it had flourished in the waters of the docks; grown; multiplied…

Robin flipped out his communicator, eyeing the dying creature in his hand warily.

"Yo, Robin!" Came Cyborg's disgruntled voice from the other side of the line. "If this about whether I got egg-fried rice… yes, I did! And I got-"

"Cy, forget the Chinese," Robin ordered. "I'm sending you my co-ordinates. I think I might have found our culprit. Round up the others and get here as soon as you can. I'm going in ahead."

There was the distinct sound of a dozen boxes being dropped to the floor and Cyborg's face came onto the screen.

"On it, Robin. What have you found?"

"Someone very careless."

Cyborg nodded grimly.

"Be there ASAP. Are you sure it's safe to go in alone?"

"I'll be fine. It's just until you guys get here."

"Okay. Over."

Cyborg's image disappeared, leaving Robin alone on the empty street again with a near-dead hybrid creature on his palm.

He was just debating what to do with it – he felt bad about leaving it on the street to die, no matter how much it repulsed him – when the wretched creature gave up the ghost and left the mortal world into which it never should have been birthed. He pulled out a little plastic evidence bag from his belt and put the creature in, sealing it up and slipping it back into his utility belt to examine it later. He straightened up, looking up at the building.

It was boarded up, with planks nailed across the crumbling doorway and chipboard over the smashed windows.

With a well-precisioned kick, Robin snapped one of the planks blocking his way in half, then tore away the rest, throwing them to the sidewalk. They were wet and rotten, so it didn't take much strength to get them off. An explosive disk made short work of the doors, blowing them well open and then some.

He was met with darkness and a heavy musty smell as he entered; pulling out his torch, his clicked it on and shone it around.

There was a dusty chandelier up above, thick with cobwebs that hung down like old party streamers; and furniture strewn around too, covered in dusty white sheets. Spiders, woodlice and silverfish fled before the spotlight he shone on them, and he was aware of the scuffling of rats too.

But otherwise, the place was deserted. At least, down _here_.

His torchlight found the stairway and without further thought or caution he crossed the floor and started up them, hearing them creak and protest even under _his_ slight weight.

He heard bats.

He smiled.

Again, he felt strangely at home.

He came up into a hallway and shone his trusty torch around again; doors flanked the corridor, all shut and locked up. He frowned, pausing for a second or two. It was quite obviously deserted up here too; he could tell from his training. The dust was settled from years of stagnancy and disuse – no-one had been up here for maybe even a decade or two.

He was about to go back downstairs and start over – maybe get onto the roof – when he heard a thud from the floor above; plaster and dust erupted from the ceiling in a cloud and he looked up, quirking an eyebrow. Looking around, he located another stairwell that he had initially missed and started up it, pulling out his staff with his free hand.

It was true; they just didn't know what they were dealing with.

The stairway brought him up into another corridor, but this time he could see the signs of life quite clearly. There were tracks through the dust on the floor where people had walked, and longer scrape marks on the wood where heavier objects had been dragged. There were five doors; four locked and dark.

The fifth, right at the far end of the hallway, was his destination.

There was light shining under the crack.

He made his way noiselessly over to it and then – just for the juxtaposition of it all – kicked it open, the _bang_ echoing and shuddering throughout the entire building. He cared little for it, stepping into the brightly-lit room beyond.

One brief look around made him want to turn and just walk out again. It was utterly sickening – yet fascinating at the same time, in a strange macabre way…

It was most certainly some kind of… laboratory. Tanks and cylinders lined the walls, and in them, suspended in more of that translucent slime – green, blue, clear – were more of those hideous creatures. All varieties, each slightly different to the one next to it. They were mostly curled up in foetal-like positions, inverted in on themselves – some twisted almost completely out of natural shape. All kinds of tubes and wires and what looked like more organic umbilical cords protruded from them, hooked up to machines outside of their tanks – charts and data-collectors. Some tubes had filters; others didn't. Some had heaters; others didn't.

All of the creatures were most certainly created by man – and made to dwell in water. Some had fins; others gills; some tails; some webbed feet and hands. Some combinations, like the tiny thing Robin had found out on the street.

Some were tiny, again like the miserable creature Robin had found. Some simply monstrous, curled up and twisted inside tanks that were too small for them.

He fought the urge to be sick back down and gingerly ventured further into the lab.

Oh yes, he had _definitely_ found what they were looking for. Their suspect; their culprit.

He came to a metal desk in the middle of the lab and looked over it scrutinizingly; sheets near-black with notes and figures in smudged pen littered the surface of it – pens, wires, sealed Petri dishes, notebooks, and a wooden board, to which was nailed another of those creatures, this one too dead, and half-dissected. The sharp dissection instruments were on the board next to it; Robin picked one up and briefly examined it before slipping that into his belt too for further assessment back at the Tower.

When the Titans turned up, they would arrest the person responsible for creating these monsters – no matter which way you looked at it, there was way _this_ wasn't breaking the law. And if the person behind _this_ really _was_ responsible for whatever was lurking in the marina – and Robin had a pretty good feeling that they _were_ – then they would be going down for a good while.

They couldn't prove anything right now, of course – but that was why Robin was collecting evidence before the rest of the Teen Titans showed up and unintentionally "rearranged" the place while apprehending their suspect. Starfire and Cyborg in particular were predominantly good at blowing things up.

Which was why Robin almost always elected himself "Get-evidence-before-Star-and-Cy-trash-the-place Boy".

He picked up a sheet of notes and ran his gaze over it briefly; he didn't recognize the handwriting, but it was in black ink, smudged and spidery. In the middle of the page was a large 37 with a circle drawn around it.

Before he could even turn his mind to that, something else about the sheet of notes struck him.

The fact that they weren't in English.

He squinted at them, bringing it right up close to his face, and then taking it away to look at it at arm's length.

Some oriental language; Japanese or Chinese. Perhaps Thai or Korean. He wasn't quite sure, and he most certainly couldn't read it.

He folded it up, sticking it into his belt along with the dead creature and the dissection tool, and was about to make his way back through the lab to get back downstairs and meet the rest of the team out front.

Storming a place always looked _so_ much more impressive with all five of them.

However, a voice that he – and perhaps _only_ he – recognized well stopped him cold.

"Ah, the good little boy resorts to petty theft, does he?"

A quick placement of his hands on the surface of the desk and a kick upwards flipped Robin right over it and placed him on the other side, facing his addressor.

Professor Chang.

Although Robin admittedly had not suspected him, he wasn't really surprised.

"_Professor_," he said shortly, his voice low and venomous.

The elderly little man offered a toothy grin at the boy, his breathing slow and audible through the apparatus plugged into his nose.

"We meet again so soon, good boy?" Chang was clearly delighted by the sight of his visitor, although Robin was not sure why. Without a laser weapon in his hand, Chang was no match for him.

In fact, scratch that; even _with_ a laser weapon in his hand, Chang was no match for him.

"You require more firepower for your little toys, yes?" The professor went on. "Or do you simply wish to prevent the _other_ boy from attaining such things?"

Red X. A sore spot.

The Titans had never found that poser. Beast Boy had muttered "More power to him" when Robin had eventually announced the temporary closure of the case, acknowledging that he had to be pretty good if the _Teen Titans_ couldn't catch him.

It was the "more _power_ to him" thing that worried Robin. But X had not shown up again since his escape in that wretched suit, and _X_ wasn't the one Robin was looking for right now anyway.

"Neither," Robin replied icily. "You landed yourself right in it this time, Chang. The authorities might have arranged a suspended sentence for you following that Zinothium cannon incident, but I don't think they're going to take very kindly to _this_ little stunt."

"Oh?" Change rearranged his wrinkled features to carry a somewhat innocent expression. "How do you come to that conclusion, good boy? I have broken no law."

Robin allowed a tiny smirk to pull at his mouth.

"You think this is _legal_?" He asked mockingly, gesturing around at all of the tanks and tubes.

"I have permission," Chang replied haughtily. "I am a man of science, and _this_ is for scientific purposes. The government is even paying for my relocation to a better laboratory."

Robin was caught out there; but did not show it. He kept his icy façade flawless, just as Batman always did.

Besides, he always had one ace hidden up his sleeve.

Just as _Batman_ always did.

"And the creature that's been attacking cargo and passenger ships down at the docks?" He asked smoothly. "I don't suppose you'd have anything to do with that?"

Chang smiled.

"Even if I did, you couldn't _prove_ it, good boy." He shrugged. "Perhaps there have been leaks; perhaps your creature is something of mine. I do not, however, throw away any of my creations that are healthy. I doubt that anything I have disposed of would have survived in those waters."

"Why don't I believe you?" Robin spat.

"Ah, because you are a good little boy, and _I_, as your pretty friend said, am a bad man." He grinned. "The two just don't go together. Now…"

Behind him, from the hallway beyond, came four of his minions, fully covered in overalls and hoods, complete with goggles and breathing apparatus similar to Chang's.

"…As you are trespassing on private property, I think you should leave," Chang went on.

Robin narrowed his masked eyes.

"This isn't over," he muttered blackly, making his way around the desk and across the room. "You won't get away with this, I'll personally make sure of it."

"Ah, so much like your mentor," Chang sighed; this again surprised Robin but his poker face remained unchanged. "I have had run-ins with your pointy-eared friend in Gotham, boy. Believe me when I say that I do not want for your kind…"

"Good guys?" Robin paused right opposite Chang, flanked on either side by his minions.

Chang gave a little nod.

"Always interfering. Batman, Superman, you and your friends… I've had it all." He flapped his gloved hands at the Boy Wonder. "Now leave. You have no right to be here interfering either…"

Robin smirked.

"It's what I do." He walked out, twirling his staff threateningly. "You'll be hearing from me as soon as I have the evidence to have your ass thrown in jail…"

Chang watched him go, detesting him. Horrible, interfering, arrogant child…

"Not if I put _you_ on ice first, good boy…"

37.

A grin widened on the old scientist's face. He handed something from one of the pouches on his belt to one of his minions and signaled for he and another to go after the Teen Titan—

Robin pulled out his communicator, already running over his instructions to his team in his head. They would meet here, Robin would show them what he had and what he had learned. They wouldn't storm the place tonight, he decided. They had nothing on Chang. But he would send Beast Boy (in mouse form) and Raven (in her Soul Self) back into the building to see what else they could gather and learn.

The comm. began to beep as it dialed up Cyborg's number and Robin waited for him to respond as he crossed the first room towards the doorway back out onto the street.

He never got that far.

Something grabbed his arm and whipped him roughly around, tearing his communicator from his grip and throwing it aside to bounce and roll across the room. Robin immediately went into "defense mode", working with the momentum and kicking his would-be captor away from him effortlessly with a sharply-precisioned roundhouse.

It was as he watched the white-clad minion bounce away in the same fashion as his communicator that he felt the sharp prick in his right upper arm. A back-kick made short work of the minion behind him, but he weakened immediately and didn't get his balance properly after recoiling his leg. His knees buckled and he keeled over, unconscious by the time he hit the floor on his face.

The needle was still in his arm.

* * *

Told ya it was predictable. Hope any readers are enjoying it anyway and that at least _someone_ comes back for Chapter Two. 

What happens next? Actually, you can probably guess. I am perfectly sure that each and every one of you can see where this is going. I do not pretend that this story is in any way mysterious. I am basically just fooling about; please don't take this story seriously...

Professor Chang? Ah, I've never used him before, he has a vendetta against Robin (I should think) and he's funny, so… I decided to use him. Plus he is _Professor_ Chang, implying some kind of scientific profession…

Uh, well, thankyou in advance to anyone who reviews. The next chapter will be up… soon… _ish_.

Any _Black Magic_ readers… we're _almost_ done with it! Just a few more chapters and then we'll be on _Remember the Titans_ and the home stretch! It will be updated soon, too…

AutumnDynasty and Quinn and His Quill, if either of you are reading this… Have a nice summer. On the fanfiction front, this is the kind of wacked-out thing you can expect from me over the next five weeks… I don't waste any time.

Any new readers I might have picked up along the way; I'm an absolute _basketcase_ when it comes to writing fanfiction.

Only fair to warn you now.

- RobinRocks xXx


	2. II

Whoo, not a bad response; not a bad response _at all_… :)

And seeing as nobody has written an account in a review of what is going to happen before I have even posted it, I'm gonna assume that it's perhaps not quite as predictable as I first thought. Yay!

A lot of you seemed surprised by my choice of villain – yes, Professor Chang is quite a rare one, isn't he? I don't think I have ever actually come across a fic myself that uses him, at least not as the primary threat. But it's Chang all the way here, and I have to admit, he's been very refreshing to write indeed. I have never used him before, but he seemed the perfect villainous candidate for this lil' fic.

Big thankyou to my nine reviewers: **Rocky-White Wolf of Curses**, **Quinn and His Quill** (your reading of this surprises me somewhat, but I hope you continue. I think you'll like it. And it is because of your memory stick that this has even been updated, so thankyou for that!), **Depths of Passion** (ah, Robin, a whore? Common knowledge, really…), **Thrillzone** (yes, there's rather a lack, isn't there? The fic you have in mind is _Changes_ by Phoenix Skyborne, and yes, Robin turned a girl much like _Ranma 1/2_), **RavenWriter89**, **Infamous One**, **Crazy Insomniac**, **Narroch06** (yes, thankyou for the ultra-scary ranting review… I think… Glad I have convinced you… o.O), and **Coolteenzz** (you should read the AN, but basically "mpreg" is when a boy becomes pregnant… thanks for the awesome poem in your review, dude! Once again, your mastery of the English language astounds me!).

BTW, the entire fic is now written. There are only six chapters, and so here is Chapter II of VI…

Do enjoy.

_Monsters in the Closet – _II

"Dude, is he okay?"

Beast Boy's concerned voice pierced through the blackness and silence that clouded Robin's mind; he struggled to open his eyes, grimacing against the pain across his brow.

"He'll live."

Cyborg.

Robin felt something soft at his back and attempted to sit up, hissing in pain as his body protested, aching and burning.

"Yo, man, lie back a second!" Cyborg again. His image swam into Robin's dim view, his large metal hands pushing the younger boy back down. "You're in no condition to be bounding up and chasing after some cheap crook."

"Cy… where-?"

"It's okay, you're safe."

Robin shook his head to get a clearer picture. When he opened his eyes again he saw that he was in the sick bay of Titans Tower, on one of the beds. Beast Boy and Cyborg were both hovering over him, their expressions stricken.

"How did I get here?" Robin asked, pushing himself up again on his elbows.

"Would you _lie_ _down_?"

"I'm _fine_," Robin insisted, gripping the metal bars at either side of the bed. "Tell me what happened, Cy."

Cyborg frowned.

"We were hoping _you_ were gonna tell _us_, man."

"What do you mean?"

"We mean we found you unconscious in the _street_, dude," Beast Boy chipped in. "On your back, knocked out, in the middle of the street."

Robin put a hand to his head.

"How did I get there?"

"What, _you_ don't know _either_?"

Robin shook his aching head.

"I sent you the coordinates for the place, and then went in ahead."

"You find anything?"

"Only Professor Chang and a laboratory full of sea-monsters that he'd made."

Cyborg and Beast Boy both gaped at him.

"You found _what_?"

Robin smiled thinly.

"You heard me. Professor Chang. Laboratory. Sea monsters."

"That skinny little old dude with a permanent asthma inhaler?" Beast Boy sounded outraged. "Didn't he learn his lesson _last_ time?"

"Clearly not." Robin shook his head. "He's got a grant, apparently; what he's doing isn't illegal. But if we can link him to the attacks in the marina – and I think we can – then we can bust his ass."

"You have proof?" Cyborg sounded ready to cash in already.

"Not exactly. At least, not yet. But I swiped a few things from his laboratory. If we can produce a match between the bio-residue left behind at the attack scenes and the DNA from what I got, we've theoretically got him."

"That still doesn't explain why you were unconscious on the street looking like someone had done you over big time," Cyborg pointed out.

Robin blinked at that last part.

"What?"

Beast Boy passed him a hand-mirror. Robin checked out his reflection; and then gaped at it.

There was a huge bruise over his forehead, and streams of faded dried blood ran from both his mouth and his nose. The rest of his body ached too, as though he'd been used as a sandbag by some kind of martial arts expert.

As though he'd been used as a sandbag by _himself_.

His right arm ached and felt heavy; and he remembered having a needle stuck into it.

He smacked one fist into his other open palm angrily.

"No-one did me over, Cy," he muttered. "Chang's minions stuck me with some kind of injection that knocked me out."

"And the bruises?"

Robin grimaced.

"I fell flat on my face." He scowled at his reflection. "Hence the "beauty queen" appearance."

"Guess you'll have to cancel your _Vogue_ shoot," Beast Boy joked.

"Guess so." Robin was extremely put out, and not just by his appearance. It was, after all, nothing a little warm water and an icepack couldn't fix.

No, he was just angry that two guys in _Ghostbusters_ costumes had managed to knock him out. They had obviously just chucked him out onto the street – which accounted for the bruises on the rest of his body – and left him there, where the Titans had found him a little while later, responding to his coordinates.

He shook his head.

"It doesn't matter," he sighed. "Like you said, I'll live. And right now, we have more important things to worry about."

"Right. Chang." Cyborg nodded in affirmation. "I'll call the girls and get them to come back."

"Where are they?"

"Still searching for our sea monster. I sent them back out there, while BB and I came back here with you."

Robin flashed them a weak but guilty little grin.

"Sorry about that."

"'S'okay. I think we should call it a night now, anyway. I can reheat the Chinese."

"Okay." Robin sat right the way up, feeling better now. He handed the mirror back to Beast Boy, who preened in it himself briefly before putting it on the bedside cabinet.

"You feel okay?" Cyborg asked.

"Sure." Robin swung his legs off the side of the bed and hopped off.

His knees gave way, making him collapse partway; he grasped the bars of the bed to stop himself going all the way to the floor and hauled himself back up.

"Just a bit weak. Probably whatever they stuck me with."

"I checked you over with the sensors. They all say you're fine."

"I think it was just a sedative."

Cyborg nodded.

"C'mon, I'm starved."

He half-dragged, half-carried Robin from the sick-bay; Beast Boy close at their heels, the mirror back in his hand.

Robin rolled his eyes.

"Is that _all_ you ever think about…?"

**TT**

Fresh from a hot shower, in his pajamas, an icepack pressed to the bruise at his forehead, all Robin wanted to do was fall into bed. It was 1:30am and he was extremely tired by the night's events, and also by the whole day of searching for that sea creature, and the whole day of searching before that, and the whole day of searching before _that_…

Sometimes being a teenage superhero was _not_ fun.

_At all._

He couldn't sleep yet. He still had work to do. They had to stop Chang quickly – before he unwittingly (or wittingly) released more monsters into the marina, and before he relocated and they lost track of him.

Professor Chang might not be the biggest threat the Titans had ever faced, but he was pretty good as disappearing when the notion took him. If he moved laboratories it could be weeks before the Titans apprehended him.

By which time, who _knew_ how many monsters there might be attacking the ships down in the docks.

It struck Robin that Chang probably _was_ releasing those things into the marina on purpose. In fact, maybe that was the sole purpose _for_ their creation. The one he had chucked out onto the street had been weak and dying – probably undeveloped or malformed. Chang was right in saying that something like _that_ wouldn't last very long.

So how were perfectly healthy man-made sea creatures getting into the waters? And how, more importantly, were they getting there when they had been created in a makeshift laboratory on the top floor of an abandoned building in the middle of the city?

The answer was both simple and obvious.

Chang had put them there.

Either that, or someone had stolen them _from_ Chang and put them there. Whatever it was, the common factor was that _someone_ had put those things into the marina on purpose.

Someone who just wanted for the destruction; or someone who might be able to reap from the benefits. Someone who might loot the cargoes of destroyed or overturned ships.

At this point, it didn't matter. All that mattered was shutting down Chang and his dabbling in nature's laws.

_Nobody_ played Dr Frankenstein on the Teen Titans' watch.

**TT**

Robin checked his digital clock and gave a half-weary, half-satisfied little groan.

5:10am and he still hadn't slept.

He had, on the other hand, gotten himself some concrete proof that Chang was responsible for whatever was lurking in Jump City Bay.

He leaned back in his chair, pushing the now-warm icepack against his forehead; looking over the mess on his desk, he allowed himself a weak little smile. His notebook, filled with new notes and figures, product of his work that night. Or morning. A wire rack holding three test tubes. The dead creature, back in its plastic bag. Four glass slides, on which were smears of bio-residue he had scavenged from the attack scenes. The dissection instrument.

Two empty cups that had both held black coffee.

And a half-eaten Twinkie; the last in the fridge, which he had grabbed during his 3:00am kitchen raid in a desperate attempt to keep his eyes open to finish his work.

He carefully cleared everything up, labeling the test tubes in his neat print and putting the glass slides in a box, which he secured with an elastic band. He rearranged his notes, putting them in order, and then put everything in his desk drawer and locked it.

He finished his Twinkie, only one thought in his head;

_Chang, you are **so** busted._

He fell onto his bed, not even bothering to get under the covers, and was out within minutes.

He slept like the dead.

**TT**

"So… it's definitely Chang?"

"Uh-huh."

Robin grinned happily; he was standing at the head of the table in the Operations Center of Titans Tower, the other four Titans seated around it.

"Pulled an all-nighter, but the evidence is all there." He waved his hand across all of his evidence and hard work strewn on the table's surface. "He definitely created the whatever-it-is that's in the marina. If we can't bust him for playing Frankenstein, we can certainly bust him for releasing his creations into public waters."

The other Titans nodded, Starfire clapping her hands together.

"Splendid!" She cried. "Then our search for the nasty sea creature is over!"

"Not quite." Raven looked at each of them in turn. "Even if we _do_ have Chang thrown in jail, we aren't any closer to catching the creature."

"Ah-ah-ah, not so fast, Ray!" Cyborg cut in jovially, wagging a metal finger at her. "Now that we have a "part" of it, let's say…" He held up one of the slides with a smear of green slime on it. "…I can easily knock together a tracking device. We can have both our man and our monster before tea-time."

Raven shrugged.

"Okay, you got me," she admitted. "I'm not going to complain. I'm getting sick of this "sea monster" anyway…"

Robin nodded.

"I think we all are, so we're getting this all done today. Cyborg, how long will it take you to modify a tracking device to pick up the plasmic radiation signal the bio-residue gives off?"

Cyborg helped himself to the box of slides.

"Gimme an hour."

He saluted his team-mates and left the Operations Center, whistling tunelessly to himself.

Robin sat in his own seat, leaning back.

"Guess we have an hour to kill then; or _less_ than that, knowing Cy."

"Joy. Tell me when we're leaving," Raven replied drolly, sinking through her chair. Within moments she too was gone.

Starfire looked up at the clock.

"I believe that _World of Fungus_ starts soon!" She cried happily. She looked from Robin to Beast Boy. "Might either of you consider joining me in watching?"

Both boys shook their heads violently.

"You go on ahead, Star," Robin muttered distractedly, waving his hand at her. The alien girl shrugged and took off across the room to the couch.

Robin yawned and placed his head in his hands.

"All-nighter, huh?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yup."

"Dude, you're just a _party_ _animal_…"

"Well, if I didn't pull all-nighters we wouldn't get any evidence so we'd be chasing crooks all day and all night long and then _none_ of us would get to go to any parties…"

"Touché. Although, come to think of it, that one Blackfire took us to pretty much sucked anyway…"

"Supremely," Robin agreed, suppressing another yawn.

"_So_…" Beast Boy reached across the table and snatched up the little plastic bag which held the little dead creature Robin had found on the street the night before. "…You think our sea monster looks something like _this_?"

Robin thought back to the tanks in Chang's lab the night before.

"Yeah, probably…"

Beast Boy prodded the thing through the plastic bag and pulled a face.

"_Sick_…" His green face brightened again. "And on that note, your face is looking _much_ better today!"

Robin scowled at the link Beast Boy had made between the hideous creature and the condition of his bruising – on further examination he realized that he was lucky not to have broken his nose.

"_Thanks, BB_," he muttered blackly.

Beast Boy beamed.

**TT**

"Okay, Cy, so you and BB are working on the whole apprehending-the-sea-monster thing," Robin reiterated.

Cyborg's image nodded.

"We're on it. Meanwhile, you and the girls are gonna pop a cap in Chang's ass."

"Affirmative." Robin looked up at the "abandoned" building. It looked just as pitiful in broad daylight. "Once we've got him we'll take him back to the tower and wait for you and Beast Boy to come back. Then it's off to the authorities with all our evidence and as many of his specimens from his lab as we can carry."

"That's why you got Ray and Star with you." Cyborg grinned. "Okay, catch ya later."

Robin nodded and Cyborg's image vanished. Robin flipped his (new) communicator closed and slipped it into his belt.

"Ready for this?" He asked of Starfire and Raven; they both nodded, Starfire's a lot more enthusiastic than Raven's.

"Then let's do it. I want more than three hours' sleep tonight."

He hitched a lift with Starfire as both girls took to the air, right up to the topmost window, blacked out by dusty blinds.

Starfire blasted right through it with a twin beam from her eyes and Robin dropped from her grip, somersaulting and landing on his feet in the room amid the broken and charred glass, courtesy of the alien princess. The two female Titans glided in behind him and the three of them looked around.

And then Robin simply _stared_, wide-eyed.

_Because the entire room was completely empty._

"You sure we got the right building?" Raven asked skeptically.

"Yes!" Robin snapped. "Jeez, I don't _believe_ this…"

"Robin, where is the Professor Chang?" Starfire asked.

Robin gripped at his fringe in frustration.

"He's relocated. _Dammit_…" He heaved a frustrated sigh. "I didn't think… I didn't realize he would be able to _do_ it so _quickly_."

"What does this mean?" Raven asked jadedly.

"It means… that it could take _weeks_ to find him."

"Robin!" Starfire darted forwards and snatched up a piece of paper from the floor. "He has left something behind!"

Robin extended his hand for it. A tracking device would have been a lot more useful, but this was better than nothing.

Or so he thought.

"Nice work, Star."

The Boy Wonder smoothed the paper out; the writing on it was in that same black scrawl – the one that looked as though a spider had rolled in ink, weaved all over the paper and then died right in the middle of it.

But this time it was in English.

And it was aimed at _him_.

_Too slow, good boy. Better luck next time. Although I think we will be seeing each other soon…_

No signature. It didn't need one.

Robin crumpled it up angrily and threw it at the wall.

_Oh, you'll be seeing me soon, Chang; and if you thought my "pointy-eared friend" was bad news, you just wait and see what **I've** got in store for you…_

* * *

Ah, the ol' "anonymous" note…

Just what is that wizened lil' professor up to?

I think you all know… :)

The real "mpreg" starts next chapter; now doesn't that just make you want to review?

Click that purple button, and you'll get it a _lot_ quicker…

_Black Magic_ updated soon, any readers of that…

- RobinRocks xXx


	3. III

Um, yeah, this is actually doing pretty good, methinks… 16 reviews is not bad for two chapters, not bad at all… Professor Chang has actually served to hook me a few readers, I think, because of the rarity of his usage… I haven't come across another fic where he is the villain myself…

Anyway, any recurring readers must surely be curious (I hope) as to what will happen next, so I will keep this brief…

**BIG** thanks to my seven reviewers; **Crazy Girl Person**, **Depths of Passion**, **Zen16**, **Letfearruleyou** (you weird lil' stalker, you…), **Quinn and His Quill**, **Kazuni**, **Coolteenzz**, and **Narroch06**, who read it and will probably leave some kind of weird comment at some point…

Okay, the fun starts… _now!_

_Monsters in the Closet – _III

He had been slaving all night.

Mainframe. Laptop. Maps. Notebook. Mainframe again. Maps again. Kitchen to drug himself up with caffeine. Laptop…

Since returning home the previous day empty-handed from Chang's "lab", he had been working non-stop trying to track him down. He tried hacking into the government system to find new location programmes – it was too tight for him to break into. He tried trawling all of the sold property networks looking for recent sales. Nothing; wherever Chang had moved his work to, it wasn't registered. He even tried logging onto a well-known scientist message board (oh yes, they did exist – professors, doctors and mad scientists alike had to chat/trade knowledge/brag about their latest findings _somewhere_) in the guise of a scientist, hoping to maybe pry a little information from someone who might know Chang, or know _of_ Chang, or be admiring/jealous enough of Chang to stalk him.

On the Chang front, he didn't learn a thing.

He _did_ learn how to make explosives from seltzer salts, sparkling water and rubidium.

Actually, he had funny feeling the seltzer salts weren't exactly _needed_ in that equation. He neglected to mention that to the chemistry enthusiast who explained it to him, however, seeing as the guy had already bitten his head off for misspelling "deoxyribonucleic" in his rush.

All in all, so far they were empty-handed.

On the sea-monster front, they were in the clear. Cyborg and Beast Boy had done the "apprehending-the-sea-monster" thing so well the previous day, they had actually _killed_ the thing unintentionally.

Neither was particularly distraught. The creature hadn't been all that cooperative, had almost eaten Cyborg and had flung an entire tugboat at them with its tail. Needless to say, it had been huge, aggressive, and most definitely one of Chang's creations.

And now it wasn't resting in _peace_ so much as resting in _pieces_.

But Robin wasn't satisfied. The monster might be gone, but Chang was still out there; still creating things that had no place in this world. And as long as he was, the Titans' work wasn't done. Sure, they had gotten rid of _one_ sea monster. But they didn't know there had only been one to begin with – there could be _more_ out there in the marina. And even if there _had_ only been one, Chang could easily just put more in there to replace it.

The Titans were _not_ done.

They wouldn't be done until Chang was behind bars and _every last one_ of his monsters was destroyed.

Until they had been sent to _Hell_ where they _belonged_.

**TT**

"Robin?"

The knocking at his door roused the Boy Wonder; he lifted his head from his arms, feeling his neck painfully crick from where he had fallen asleep at his desk.

"What?" He called sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Breakfast's ready in ten, 'kay?" Cyborg told him through the panel.

"Alright."

He heard the thudding of Cyborg's feet as he walked away down the corridor.

Ugh, breakfast. He didn't like the sound of that this morning. If fact, the thought of it made him feel kind of…

…_sick_.

Make that _really_ sick.

Make that, like… actually _blowing chunks_ sick.

He got up from his chair, composed himself and very calmly walked to his door, went across the corridor and slipped into the bathroom.

Then made a crazy dash _across_ the bathroom and threw up into the sink.

He straightened up when he was finished and heaved a sigh, wiping his forehead. He felt awful—

The feeling only got a whole lot worse when he idly looked down at the sink and didn't see vomit.

What he saw was green slime.

Which made the desire to puke come thundering back and he went for another round. As he straightened up again he put his fingers to his lips and when he pulled them away he saw strings of slime threaded between his mouth and fingertips.

A scream of fright and horror welled somewhere in him and he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth and _crushed_ it.

It wouldn't do to lose control over this. There was a perfectly logical explanation.

Once, Beast Boy had vomited blue sparkling liquid after drinking four bottles of blue raspberry soda all in one go.

And that time Cyborg had eaten that bad candy the same night Raven had "Wickedly Scared" them all half to death, the half-robot had vomited a sour mess of half-digested candy – a hundred colors all melted into one, with whole sweets in there that he obviously hadn't even chewed.

There was no uniform kind of puke, he reasoned, trying to calm himself down.

The only trouble was that that green slime looked incredibly familiar; and not because it was something that he had swallowed only half an hour before, unlike both Beast Boy and Cyborg's cases.

In fact, it looked horribly like…

…_bio-residue_.

He fished out another little plastic evidence bag from his belt (being taught by Batman – it had its pros) and put some of the slime he had just spat up into it, sealing it again and stuffing it quickly into his belt as he saw the bathroom door open in the mirror.

Beast Boy peeked around the door's edge, his large green eyes wide.

"Dude, you okay?"

"Yeah." Robin wiped his mouth on his glove and hurriedly turned on both taps to wash away the slime left in the sink. "Just fine…"

"Were you puking up?"

"No," Robin lied, looking intently at his reflection.

Beast Boy – or his reflection, at least – looked irked.

"Robin, I have super-hearing," he said coolly, indicating his long pointed ears. "I _heard_ you."

"Then why'd you _ask_?" Robin snapped.

"'Cause I wanna know if you're okay."

"I'm _fine_. I already _said_ I'm fine."

Robin shut off the hot tap and got himself a drink from the cold one before shutting that off too.

"Are you gonna keep lying, dude?" Beast Boy asked softly.

"Are _you_ gonna keep being a pain in the ass?" Robin shot back, slamming the glass back down.

Beast Boy looked hurt.

"Robin, we're worried about you. All these "all-nighters" you keep doing, it's not good for you. Cyborg says you aren't getting enough sleep—"

"Hey, when I want to take orders from you and Cyborg, I'll resign being leader," Robin spat over his shoulder, still watching Beast Boy's reflection rather than the green changeling himself.

"Fine, if you're gonna be such a bitch…"

Beast Boy turned his green nose up and stalked out of the bathroom.

Robin felt bad for being so cutting with the younger boy and debated going after him to apologize. As it happened, he didn't need to; the green teen was back within moments, poking his head around the door again.

He was smirking.

"Morning sickness, huh?" Beast Boy's pointed canines glinted as his grin widened impossibly. "Guess _someone_ didn't pay attention to the "Safe Sex" posters…"

Robin snapped a birdarang from his belt and whipped around, fling it at the doorframe; the sharp wing sank into the wood, inches from Beast Boy's right ear. Beast Boy turned into a green chicken with a loud spooked cluck and fled down the hall.

Probably to tell tales to Cyborg.

Robin didn't care; he was in no mood for Beast Boy's stupid immature humor right now.

But then, said humor didn't usually bother him. Why had he gotten so angry that he had thrown a birdarang at the other boy – well, not _at_ him, but close enough to him for it to frighten him?

Because Beast Boy's words had touched a nerve.

He was a virgin. He was a _boy_, more importantly. He couldn't be _pregnant_.

But he was starting to think…

…that maybe it could be something pretty damn _similar_.

And that Professor Chang might have something to do with it.

**TT**

Robin sat back in his chair, trying to calm his breathing down.

The chemical test, the molecular scan and the microscopic examination had all confirmed his fears.

What he had thrown up that morning was bio-residue.

But not just _any_ bio-residue.

The same bio-residue that he had found at the attack scenes. The same green slime that the creature he had found had been embedded in.

That had gone _splash_ on the sidewalk behind him.

So what now? He had puked up bio-residue. Chang's minions had knocked him out with some kind of injection – he still had the purple flower-like blotch on his upper right arm to prove it. Had that injection perhaps put something _else_ into him too?

But that still didn't add up. Cyborg said he had checked Robin over with the sensors in the sick bay when he and Beast Boy had brought him back to the tower, thinking that someone had done a number on him.

And Cyborg said that the sensors had said that he was perfectly healthy. There was nothing in him that shouldn't be; and there wasn't anything missing, either.

But then he had puked up bio-residue.

Shakily, Robin reached for the crumpled note he had brought home with him from the "failed-Chang-arrest" yesterday afternoon. He read it again, although he had done so at least fifty times prior to this;

_Too slow, good boy. Better luck next time. Although I think we will be seeing each other soon…_

Oh yes, if Chang didn't have something to do with this, then Robin was hallucinating, and there _was_ no cryptic note clutched in his shaking fingers.

Did Chang expect Robin to seek him out for help? To get down on his knees and _beg_ for him to undo whatever he'd done?

Although Robin was frightened, he wasn't going to grovel; _especially_ not to that wizened little—

"Robin?"

Cyborg was at the door again.

"What?" Robin tried to make his voice sound less irritable and snappy.

The panel opened a little, and Cyborg leaned in.

"Can we talk?"

Robin leaned back his chair, his hands over his eyes.

"Not right now, Cy. I'm busy."

"Well, now is good for me."

Cyborg came in and shut the door, making himself at home and helping himself to Robin's bed. Looking at him sprawled on his made covers, the Boy Wonder knew that his friend wasn't going to budge.

"Okay, _fine_," he relented through gritted teeth. "What do you want to talk about?"

"You."

_Uh-huh. Saw that one coming…_

"Wouldn't you rather talk about Halle Berry? Or the Superbowl? Or _Buffy the_-?"

"Shut your smart mouth, Robin. The guys and I are worried about you. You didn't come down for breakfast, and…" Cyborg sat up again. "…B says you chucked a birdarang at him in the bathroom."

Robin didn't deny it.

"He was being a pest. _You_ of all people should be able to relate to throwing things at him."

"I throw pillows – and occasionally peanuts – at him," Cyborg argued. "You threw a _weapon_ – a sharp, dangerous weapon with which you are _extremely_ well-trained and skilled – at him. It's the not the same, and it's not acceptable, so don't try to defend it."

"Don't lecture me," Robin hissed.

"Then don't do stupid things."

"I didn't throw it _at_ _him_, okay?" Robin burst out wearily. "I threw it at the doorframe to chase him away."

"That's _still_ not acceptable, and you know it. You were _threatening_ him."

"So? He was _annoying_ me. He wouldn't leave me alone."

"Did you _ask_ him to leave you alone? Nicely, I mean?"

"Since when does _Beast Boy_ ever take the hint, no matter _how_ you ask him?"

"So that's a no?"

"Does it even _matter_?" Robin moaned. "Yes, I threw the damn thing at him, and I'm _sorry_ if it means _that freaking much_ to you. And yes, in case he's been telling _more_ tales to you, I was pretty nasty to him too. So what? Usually I put up with him but I am _not_ in the mood for him today."

"He said you threw up."

"It happens, Cy." Robin noticed his hands were shaking a tiny bit and put them on his lap so that Cyborg couldn't see them. "Everybody pukes up now and then."

"Sounds to me like you're ill from exhaustion," Cyborg replied coolly. "All this work you've been doing this past fortnight, what with all our other cases and the marina monster thing…"

"I'm the leader of the Titans," Robin pointed out wearily. "It's my responsibility. If I don't do it, who will?"

"_We_ will. Or Raven and I, anyway."

"Look, thanks for the concern, Cy. I really appreciate it. But I'm fine. I don't know why you're all so worried."

"Because you're _ill_!"

"I'm not. A little _tired_, maybe, but not _ill_. I can handle it, okay?"

Cyborg eyed him skeptically, then got up.

"Okay, well, I tried. I guess I can't make you lie up and rest for a week." He made for the door. "Just do us all one favor, okay?"

"What?"

"Take some medicine, and get some sleep. Take a nap before lunch or something. That's _all_ I ask, Robin."

"That's _two_ favors."

Cyborg flipped him off irritably; a rare thing for the amiable teen.

"Whatever, man…"

He slammed the panel behind him.

Resorting to childishness, Robin stuck his tongue out after him.

Okay, he'd be good. He knew that really they _were_ just worried for his welfare and yes, he was exhausted from working solidly all night and all day and all night and all day…

First he'd go and check himself over with the sensors himself, just to be _sure _that Cyborg hadn't missed anything.

Then he'd take some medicine. He'd sleep until lunch.

And then he'd get back to work.

Being taught by Batman – it had its cons too.

**TT**

He realized he was practically a walking zombie as he made his way back through Titans Tower towards his room. Cyborg was right – maybe what he was feeling was just exhaustion.

But that didn't explain the bio-residue.

And neither did the sensors.

Cyborg was right; they said he was fine. There was nothing in him that shouldn't be.

The more he thought about it, the more his head ached. He really just needed to lie down and get a few hours' sleep. It was 9:00am now. Cyborg was in charge of lunch today, and he usually served it up between 12:30pm-1:00pm. That gave him between 3/3½ hours of sleep.

He had already taken some medicine for cold symptoms and headaches, and was about to push back his bedroom door when he saw Beast Boy ambling along the corridor, coming from the direction of his own room.

Beast Boy noticed him and averted his gaze, beginning to whistle.

"Beast Boy, I'm… sorry I threw that birdarang at you," Robin said after some debate. "I shouldn't have, and I shouldn't have yelled at you. You were only trying to help."

Beast Boy smiled.

"Okay, well, I guess I can accept that," he replied. "Only if you let me give you a word of advice, though."

"If it's about going to take a nap, I'm doing it right now."

"Nope. Next time, if you really _do_ wanna take my ear off, aim a little lower…"

Beast Boy walked past, starting up his whistling again.

Robin glared after him, pissed off at being snubbed by _Beast Boy_, of all people.

"Hey, I apologized!"

"You also threw a batarang at me. Have a nice nap!"

Robin watched him go, irked.

"It's a _birdarang_…" he muttered, going into his room and slamming the door.

He collapsed onto his bed and was sound asleep within ten minutes, drowsily reminding himself that he would get up again at midday and get back to work.

As it happened… it _didn't_ happen.

He slept the day away, dead to the world, and even Cyborg hammering on his door did not wake him.

Even Cyborg coming _in_ didn't rouse him; the half-robot found him sound asleep on top his covers, still fully clothed. Shaking him did not wake him, but Cyborg reasoned that Robin was extremely tired and decided to leave him be. After a quick debate, Cyborg decided that Robin might be more comfortable in his pajamas, so took off his uniform and put him in them.

Still the Boy Wonder didn't wake up.

Cyborg put the covers over him and left.

It was a full twenty hours until Robin stirred from his comatose state.

By which time it was far, _far_ too late.

* * *

Like I said, this fic isn't an Agatha Christie story – it's pretty predictable… 

Well, I don't have much to say, so… more fun soon!

TTFN!

- RobinRocks xXx


	4. IV

Whee! Eleven reviews for the last chapter! Guess it is kinda popular… which is cool. It's a weird lil' fic – I've categorized it under "Sci-f/horror" but I think it would fit under "Humor" as well quite easily… Because it is written as though it were _serious_, but I mean… come on, it _is_ kinda far-fetched and ludicrous…

Heh-heh…

Anyway, glad people are liking it. Thankyou to:

**Squidgit **(yes, there aren't very many of these around, are there?); **Crazy Girl Person **(I know, I'm notorious for cliff-hangers… you gotta love 'em…); **Crazy Insomniac **(you're a cruel lil' person, aren't you? You can't wait to hear Robin scream… I swear you only read _Black Magic_ because it is basically comprised of Robin being tortured one way or another…); **Hamster Fan **(yup, this fic is kinda predictable…I like hamsters too! Do you like _Hamtaro_? O.o…); **iRebel **(like your pen-name, cool play on "iRobot"… Sorry if that's not what you intended. Yes, you're right; this story is satirical in that way; _Small Print_… yeah, we're working on that. I don't know when it'll be updated, but it isn't finished, so don't worry; and thanks for the review on _Child of the Hunt_! Glad you liked it!); **Amarin Rose **(I didn't know that… O.o Anyway, no, this isn't going to be like _Alien_… _much_…); **Quinn and His Quill **(so _that's_ what you get up to when you aren't; a.) reading _Black Magic_; b.) watching _Bleach_; and c.) writing stories about a boy named Sharon… I mean _Charon_… As for Robin being a virgin… just think of every story as a clean slate apart from _Asylum/Black Magic/Remember the Titans_; so basically, ignore every single _other_ fic I have written where Robin gets it on with someone! And they _are_ called birdarangs! And for the record, Batman's projectiles aren't called "bat**mer**angs" – they are "bat**a**rangs"…); **Depths of Passion **(I like BB/Robin interaction too – and I'm glad you're still liking this!); **Narroch06 **(the insatiable skeptic… whom I managed to corrupt with my "mpreg" fic… you are still here…); **Kazuni **(witness below; Robin "dealing with it"! well, this fic isn't very long at all – I think it would get boring if it were dragged out– so it doesn't go into much detail like cravings and stuff… I hope you enjoy it anyway!); and **Coolteenzz **(Okay, don't lose any more sleep! Here's the next chapter!).

Here ya go!

_Monsters in the Closet –_ IV

It was dark when he awoke. Frowning, he sleepily rubbed at his forehead and looked across at his digital alarm clock.

Red letters read 4:54am.

That woke him up a little more. _4:54am_?

But he had fallen asleep at _9:00am_.

Had someone set his clock back for a joke, or had he _really_ been asleep for a _full twenty hours_? It was dark out; it couldn't be a joke.

It was unlike him. Utterly and truly _unlike_ him.

He slept six at the most. He could run pretty well on two, and could, if the need was really there, survive with no sleep at all.

_Twenty_?

He couldn't get his head around it. Perhaps Cyborg was right; maybe he really _was_ ill.

He still wasn't entirely awake now, but was angry at his sleeping the entire day away.

Sleeping equaled no work.

He noticed that he was both under the covers and also in his pajamas. He shrugged; Cyborg, probably. He was the ultimate big brother. Robin propped himself up on his elbows and reached across to flick on his bedside lamp. He'd get up, freshen up and get straight to work. They simply couldn't waste any more time…

He leaned over, pulling the cord of his lamp with one hand.

He rested the other absently on the covers over his stomach.

His blood ran icy cold.

He paused for a few moments, his heart racing – still like that, with one hand on the cord of the lamp, the other on his stomach, still in pitch darkness but for his digital clock.

He moved his hand a little, feeling…

Oh dear god…

He grimaced, shutting his eyes, and clicked on his light.

The light stung his eyes even though they were closed, and he used it as an excuse not to open them.

He waited at least another five minutes, breathing hard, not daring to move even an inch.

And then, finally, he gingerly opened his eyes, looking at the ceiling.

Looking would make it real.

If he didn't _look_…

He waited again. He simply _could not_ force his head down.

Not yet. Not yet. He'd look in a minute.

He knew. He could _feel_ – something was _wrong_. Something felt different. Slower. Heavier.

And his hand…

Oh, he _knew_.

But he couldn't _look_.

Minutes ticked by. Two, three, five, seven, eleven…

He miserably watched the clock.

At 5:15am he finally looked down at himself.

The gasp welled in him anyway, even though he _knew_. He stared down at himself, wide-eyed – because even the thick covers could not hide it.

The fact that his belly was swollen beyond all physical capability – and that it had done so in twenty hours.

The fact that he looked about eight months pregnant.

Again, his scream abandoned him.

**TT**

7:01am.

Robin heaved an aching sigh, his gaze fixed on the sun rising over the sparkling water of Jump City bay outside his window. He had been staring out of the window fixedly since awaking two hours earlier and realizing that he had suddenly grown out of all of his clothes.

He was half-sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard, completely still and limp, with the covers pulled right up under his arms.

He didn't take his eyes off the sun.

Words had escaped him. Screams had died in him. He couldn't do anything – couldn't soothe himself, couldn't call for help.

He simply lay there, stunned into silence.

What did he do _now_?

He couldn't look at himself; his stomach, unrecognizably swollen, utterly disgusted him, which was why he hadn't even pulled the covers back to look at himself properly. He could feel that the loose material of his pajamas was stretched.

If he couldn't even bring _himself_ to look, how was he going to show the others?

He didn't have any other options on that count, apart from locking himself in his room. He couldn't exactly hide it. It wasn't subtle.

And it wasn't even like he had anything to _wear_. All of his clothes were small, tight and form-fitting for practicality.

And all this was of shallow value. What about the more important things?

What was _really_ wrong with him? What was he going to do? Was there even anything he _could_ do? Why hadn't the sensors shown anything up when there clearly _was_ something wrong with him – something _inside_ him?

Had Beast Boy's stupid joke really been so stupid after all?

He worried and wallowed in terror and dread, in shock and self-pity; still gazing at the sun.

The sun that rose the way it always did.

As though nothing had _changed_.

**TT**

7:47am.

Robin rubbed at his messy hair. He still couldn't think what to do. He wasn't sure what was even _happening_ to him.

It looked and felt as though he was pregnant. But he was a _boy_ – he _couldn't_ be. It was physically and biologically impossible for him to be so, because he didn't have a womb.

But _something_ had grown inside him. _Somehow_.

Something that was very fast developing.

So how did he get it out? He couldn't exactly _give birth_ to it – again with the whole being-a-boy thing.

And he didn't really like the prospect of giving birth to it anyway.

The logical explanation would be to _cut_ the thing out, but he couldn't do _that_ himself – he would need someone to do it for him.

Which meant he would have to tell someone.

Which put him right back at Square One.

Sitting here by himself fretting about what he was going to do.

At 7:56am there was a familiar knock at his door – Cyborg had a very distinct way of knocking.

"Robin? You awake?"

Robin opened his mouth to reply.

_Yes. I'm fine._

But the words didn't come out. He kept quiet; and eventually shut his mouth again.

"Robin? You can't _still_ be asleep, man!"

The panel opened and Robin flinched, still staring hard at the window. He curled up on his side, drawing the covers right up to hide himself.

He _couldn't_ show him. _He couldn't show them_.

"Robin, _yo_!" Cyborg sounded pretty irked. "When I said take a nap, I didn't mean drug yourself up and sleep all day!"

The half-robot came right the way into the room, his footfalls heavy.

"_Robin! _Come on, rise and shine!"

Robin shivered miserably, going right under the covers as Cyborg approached the bed. The half-robot saw the spiky hair disappear under the sheets and grasped hold of the material, tugging it back.

"Oh no you don't," he muttered. "Time to get up, Sleeping Beauty…"

Robin desperately grabbed hold of the sheets himself and hauled them back.

"Don't, Cy!" He finally found his voice. "I'm getting up now!"

"'Bout time!" Cyborg gave one final tug and pulled the sheets right away, his other hand preventing Robin from getting them

back.

Robin dipped his head miserably, curling up on the bare bed. However, Cyborg appeared not to have even noticed the other boy's condition. He reached down, gripping Robin's wrist and started to pull at him.

"We were getting worried about you, jerk. Didn't come down for lunch, for combat practice, for dinner, for a movie… good job we didn't have any villains making havoc yesterday, huh?"

Robin tried to tug his wrist back as Cyborg pulled him to his knees.

"Cy-"

"I dunno what's up with you lately, you're just…"

Cyborg trailed off as he idly looked down at the struggling Boy Wonder.

And _saw_.

"_Wah_!" Cyborg let go of Robin's wrist as though the younger boy had burned him. "Robin, _what_ the…? You got a pillow shoved up there or what?"

Robin looked away sadly.

"Robin?" Cyborg's tone softened. "You're kidding around, right?"

Robin swallowed; managing to shake his head.

"I…" He struggled to get anything else out. "I… don't…"

"_Jesus_…" Cyborg sat on the edge of the bed. "You ain't playing, huh? What happened?"

"I… I don't… _kn-know_…"

"The sensors said there was nothing wrong."

"I know, I looked…"

"You weren't like this yesterday, or the day before, or…"

Robin sniffed miserably.

"I know…"

Cyborg looked at him gravely.

"Why didn't you _tell_ us? Someone? _Anyone_?"

"I just… this morning…"

"Okay, okay…"

Cyborg was staring at him; Robin wiped his eyes on his palm, feeling saltwater pool at the corners of them.

"It's wacky," the half-robot murmured eventually. "How is this even… you're a _guy_!"

"I'm not _pregnant_," Robin said with more certainty than he felt. "There's something in me, but it's not… it's not supposed to be there…"

"Then why didn't it show up on the sensors?"

Robin shrugged helplessly

"I don't know…"

Cyborg eyed his swollen stomach warily.

"Well, whatever's up, I think we should think about getting it out of you ASAP. I seriously don't like the look of that."

"Welcome to my world…"

"C'mon, we'll try some of the other scanners and equipment."

Robin nodded, wiping his eyes again.

"Okay…"

"Can you walk?"

"I think so…"

Cyborg helped him to his feet but Robin almost overbalanced as soon as Cyborg let go of him, so that the half-robot had to hurriedly catch him again. Robin had flushed pink and there were tears in his eyes again.

"_Heavy_…" he muttered, mortified.

"It's okay." Cyborg picked him up and carried him out of the room; something that didn't ease Robin's humiliation in the slightest.

He looked at the clock over Cyborg's shoulder.

8:09am.

**TT**

"Stop _staring_ at me!" Robin snapped angrily at Beast Boy and Starfire, folding his arms.

The alien girl and the shape-shifter exchanged glances; then Beast Boy looked out of the window and Starfire looked up at the ceiling.

The five of them were in the sick bay again, Robin sat on one of the beds, irritably swinging his legs. Cyborg had found him some old clothes of his to wear, considering that he was a lot bigger than the normal-sized Robin; so he had on a grey sweatshirt with "Stone 00" across the back, and a pair of jeans that were still extremely snug despite the fact that they would normally be about four sizes too big for him.

A little _too_ snug, actually, which was why he had pushed the waistband under the bulge of his stomach.

He felt freakish. Hideous. He huddled up miserably because he didn't want anyone to look at him. He knew they weren't going to laugh and point, or that they weren't going to recoil in horror from him, but he hid all the same. The oversized sweatshirt did swathe his belly, obscuring the size and shape quite well, but they all knew it was there underneath the grey material.

The bump that he, as a boy, should not have.

Cyborg had brought the other Titans up to speed; Raven had been unfazed. She always was.

Starfire couldn't seem to get her pretty head around it.

Beast Boy bit his lip guilty, remembering his cutting joke the morning before.

Cyborg – resident technology expert – was taking charge of the situation, while Robin hugged himself and shivered (half-scared, half-angry) on the bed nearby.

As it happened, Cyborg had tried every scanner and sensor he could find.

None of them registered a thing. Even running them over Robin's obvious bump did not procure a reading from any of them.

Cyborg was beginning to become very frustrated – and Robin was beginning to become very worried.

"I just don't get it!" Cyborg snapped finally, kicking a hand-held heartbeat monitor across the large white room. "_Why_ isn't anything showing up? There is _definitely_ something in there!"

No-one had any kind of answer for him.

"So… what do we do?" Beast Boy asked finally.

"Rip it out," Robin put in venomously; it appeared that "protective maternal instinct" had completely bypassed him. In fact, he was already planning to get whatever the heck was inside him and paste its brains across the floor.

"I'd rather figure out what it actually _is_ we'd be "ripping out" before we start cutting you open, Robin."

"I'd rather you took it out first, please."

"We can't just rush into it, Robin," Cyborg argued, shaking his head. "I know enough, but I'm hardly a surgeon. And besides, we might not be _able_ to get it out of you."

Robin's blood ran cold again.

"What… do you…?"

"You don't have a womb, obviously, yet whatever-it-is has still managed to grow inside you. How has it done that?"

"You think it could have attached itself somehow to his internal organs?" Raven put in quietly.

"I don't know. Perhaps." Cyborg sighed. "I just don't know. We don't even know what it _is_. I got a bad feeling it ain't a _baby_, though…"

Robin bit his lip worriedly; Cyborg wasn't the _only_ one getting that vibe.

He shivered, thinking back to the slime he had thrown up the morning before.

And the test results.

"Cyborg…" he said shakily. "Why don't you try… the… bio-residue tracking device you put together…?"

Cyborg blinked at him.

"_Why_?"

"Because… it's the only thing we haven't tried…"

Cyborg nodded and started out of the room.

He stopped cold at the door and looked over his shoulder.

"Wait, you think…?"

"I hope I'm wrong." Robin looked up from his lap, his masked eyes haunted. "I _really_ hope I'm wrong…"

**TT**

He wasn't wrong.

The thing started going haywire the instant Cyborg turned it on; the half-robot stared at the tiny screen, aghast.

"I'm getting a bio-plasmic reading that's off the scale…"

Robin's heart sank. So he'd been _right_…

…and his fears had been confirmed.

"So I've got one of those—"

"_One_?" Cyborg cut him off. "Robin, there are _dozens_ of them!"

Robin physically felt the blood drain out of his face.

"_Dozens_?" He repeated weakly.

Cyborg nodded distractedly.

"I can't get an exact number, they're all too close together…"

Robin shuddered, pushing away the mental image of all those horrible slimy writhing things in their nest of bio-plasmic gunk, all compressed together inside of him; so that they could barely move, just twitch against each other as they waited to be born…

It was an image too graphic for his tastes – and one that was _difficult_ to push away.

"_Get them out_, _please_!" He begged, grabbing at Cyborg's arm.

Cyborg nodded.

"I think we'd better. By these readings, it looks to me like they're reaching maturity…"

Robin swallowed.

"Which means…?"

"Well, being male, you can't give birth to them, so I assume…"

"…They'll make their _own_ way out," Raven cut in; she, Starfire and Beast Boy had all been silent up until now, drinking it all in.

Robin shakily put a hand to his forehead, thinking of _Alien_.

"I really don't think I want them doing _that_… They won't… get any bigger, will they?" His hands moved back to his swollen belly again, hardly daring to think about it – any bigger and surely his stomach would _burst_.

"I shouldn't think so. Like I said, they seem to be at a mature stage, and anyway, there can't be much room left for them to grow. You're a boy; your hips aren't wide enough. You could never carry a real baby, that's for sure…"

Robin worriedly bit his lip, not convinced.

Cyborg turned the tracking device off.

"It's okay, we'll get them out of you."

Robin looked up mournfully.

"What if it's like you said? What if you _can't_?"

Cyborg smiled grimly.

"I don't think we've really got a _choice_…"

"Hold up!" Beast Boy burst out, waving his arms around. "What _exactly_ are we dealing with here?"

Robin heaved a sigh, not wanting to put it into words.

"You know that "sea monster" you and Cy hacked up the other day in the marina?"

Beast Boy nodded, wide-eyed – behind him, Starfire put a hand to her mouth, putting it together faster than the shape-shifter did.

"Well," Robin went on, fear dousing him as he spoke, "we have a whole nest of them right here."

"_More_ of them?"

"_Lots_ more."

Robin gingerly put a hand on his stomach.

"And it looks like _I'm_ their "mommy"…"

**TT**

(The dividing ruler isn't working...)

Yeah… you know when I said it "wasn't exactly _proper_ mpreg"?

I wasn't lying.

Robin has a whole "litter" of baby sea monsters inside him.

**(Insert evil maniacal laughter here)…**

Why do we _do_ these things to the poor lil' Boy Wonder? And why do we _enjoy_ it?

Robin was invented in 1940 _to be tortured_, is my theory… He is a very fan-fiction-friendly character; because he has been thorugh so many wacky things already since 1940, nothing is too weird to do to him. If you don't believe me, check out some of the 60s _Batman_ comics. He has been tied to a giant bowling pin, made the jester in the court of a oversize queen bee and been "murdered" by a huge-alien-stone-statue-on-a-weird-alien-planet-that-turned-out-to-not-be-real-because-Batman-was-hallucinating-and-thought-Robin-was-dead… I have a reprint of that somewhere – it's from 1962 and is very strange… It was basically about team-work and how Batman needs Robin and vice versa… but that sure was a strange way of going about it…

O.o…

And some of the TT eps are weird enough; like _Revolution_, or _Mother Mae-Eye_…

So, believe me… _nothing is too weird for Robin to go through…_

So is my belief. Hence… _Monsters in the Closet._

Gimme some reviews and you'll get an update!

Ta-ta!

- RobinRocks xXx


	5. V

Here we are; chapter 5 of 6, and what a crazy lil' ride it's been, right?

And with 37 reviews, I would like to thankyou everyone who has commented so far! Nobody has flamed the fic or told me I am crazy and should be locked up in Arkham Asylum, so…

Thanks to; **Amarin Rose **(who always provides an "interesting mpreg fact" along with every review. Yes, you're absolutely right about seahorses, though I can't say that really came into my head. Weird-much…? O.o); **Hamster Fan** (well, you get to find out what happens next right now!); **Crazy Girl Person** (told ya it wasn't _real_ mpreg…! And yeah, Robin's gonna have to be cut open before he gets his organs devoured…); **Depths of Passion **(as I said in my ANs at the bottom of the previous chapter, Robin was _invented_ to be tortured and embarrassed… and that's what we so-called "Robin Fans" do best, right…?); **Narroch06 **(as before, I have corrupted you with my weird and whimsical (I think?) "mpreg" story… you'd think, being a college student and all, you would have a more mature sense of humor… obviously not…!); **Quinn and His Quill** (you're weird… and an idiot. And yes, believe it or not, I didn't get a U! I was _so_ happy to see that E, I tell you…!); **PokemasterXL **(here's your update!); **Blackfire2121 **(yup, this fic is categorized as horror/sci-fi but could _easily_ be a comedy fic too. EASILY…); **Crazy Insomniac** (as above to Depths of Passion, we so-called Robin-lovers are _notorious_ for torturing him… and notorious for liking it!); and **Coolteenzz **(yeah, my text structure has changed slightly. But you are comparing this to _Black Magic_, which is a much older fic, so… because this isn't very long, it doesn't need huge paragraphs explaining everything… Yes, yes, yes; here is some candy for you, my friend:P).

C'mon, people! Let's try and hit 50 reviews in time for the last part!

_Monsters in the Closet – _V

"…And once more, they are not _pets_!"

Robin heaved a deep breath, looking from each of his fellow Titans to the next.

His gaze _particularly_ on Beast Boy and Starfire – the latter was cradling Silkie in her honey-tanned arms.

She cooed over that disgusting creature like it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit or a cuddly little kitten – and Beast Boy had been the one to snatch it in the first place.

The two of them blinked beguilingly at him, both pairs of green eyes innocent.

"I am _serious_," the Boy Wonder reiterated. "As soon as Cyborg has gotten these things out of me, I want them _destroyed_, understand? I don't care _how_ cute you think they are – although I seriously doubt they will be anything of the sort; _no-one_ is keeping any as pets. That worm-thing is bad enough…"

This was aimed more at Starfire than anyone else – he knew Raven would be disgusted by them, and even Beast Boy – who, despite being the one to rescue Silkie from the same fate as his brothers and sisters, had been grossed-out by the creature in the marina, and probably wouldn't want a baby one in a tank in his bedroom.

But _Starfire_ thought that Silkie was "adorable", found earwigs to be "deeply enchanting and whimsical creatures" and refused to kill cockroaches because they were "cute".

What it came right down to was that he just didn't trust her not to fall in love with a slimy baby man-made killer sea creature.

"You've no worries on that front," Cyborg replied grimly. "I'll get rid of them myself…"

"We could drop them down the waste disposal," Beast Boy offered. "That'd get rid of them…"

"_And_ gunk up our waste disposal unit," Cyborg finished irritably.

"Look, I don't care _how_ you do it," Robin snapped. "Just _get rid_ of them, okay?"

Beast Boy saluted him; Raven rolled her eyes.

"Okay, I think we're ready to go with this," Cyborg said, screwing the needle firmly into place in the syringe. "I'm afraid the only anesthetic-and-sedative combo we have takes an hour to get working. You'd definitely rather be unconscious?"

Robin nodded crazily – there was no way he was going to lie awake while Cyborg cut him open and pulled out those horrible writhing slimy things one by one.

There was _no way_ he was going to _watch_ those things coming out of him.

"Yes." Robin rolled up the sleeve of Cyborg's oversized sweater and held out his arm. "An hour's fine. I'll just lie up until I fall asleep."

Cyborg nodded.

"Okay, if you're sure…"

The needle found its mark and Cyborg pushed it all the way home; Robin studied the ceiling, fighting to ignore the tiny movements he could feel inside him.

It was okay – it would all be okay. In two hours' time they would be out of him.

He was thankful at least that he didn't have to wait nine whole months…

"Okay, you're all set," Cyborg said cheerily, pulling the needle back out. "I'll rip the little buggers out in an hour, 'kay?"

Robin smiled weakly.

"Thanks, Cy."

Cyborg ruffled his hair – Robin winced but didn't make a sound. Cyborg sometimes forgot his own strength.

"Hey, c'mon, man, you're being very brave about all of this. I know it can't be…" His gaze flickered to Robin's swollen belly. "…It can't be at all easy for you…"

Robin gave an awkward little shrug; because what else _could_ he do? What other answer could he _give_?

He had awoken this morning to discover that, despite being a boy, he had managed to become pregnant; and on that note, said pregnancy wasn't wasting any time at all, his stomach swelling to an impossible size in not even 24 hours.

And _then_ he had discovered that what he was "pregnant" with wasn't even a freaking _baby_ – that what he had inside his belly instead was an entire _nest_ of baby mutant sea-creatures.

So many that Cyborg couldn't even _count_ them.

Speaking of, Cyborg lifted him up and carried him over to one of the beds in the sick bay, sitting him on it.

"You get comfy," he said. "Chill out, read something… here." He handed Robin a magazine from the near-empty rack hanging on the white wall. "Read this."

Robin scowled at first the magazine, then Cyborg.

"This is _Vogue_," he pointed witheringly.

"Oh, you'd rather have _Mother and Baby_?"

Robin's scowl deepened, but he said nothing.

"Didn't think so." Cyborg turned and began to usher the others out of the room in front of him. "I'll be back in hour. You want anything, call, okay?"

"Okay."

The door swung shut, leaving the Boy Wonder on his own.

He idly flickered through _Vogue_, got bored of it and flung it across the sick bay; then lay back and counted the cracks on the ceiling.

He fought to ignore the movements he could feel within him. The writhes and wriggles; kicks and flicks of tiny feet and tails.

He couldn't block them out – they were becoming a lot more constant. He put his hands on his stomach, wondering how many of them there were.

Ten? Twenty? _Fifty_? If they were the same size as the one he had found on the street, there could even be _hundreds_ of them – after all, it had been _tiny_, and his stomach was _huge_.

He shivered. He had no idea why girls willingly put themselves through this.

But then, _this_ wasn't _quite_ the same, was it?

_Girls_ didn't give birth to mutant sea creatures…

To _monsters_.

And now he shuddered. He just wanted them _out_.

He looked over at the clock.

9:29am.

In theory, by lunchtime they should be out of him. Once Cyborg was in it wouldn't take him too long to get them out, and then Raven would heal up the hole in his belly in time for him to come around.

Being a Teen Titan; it had its pros.

It made him feel a little better.

At 9:38am, he began to feel a little drowsy. He closed his eyes, realizing that the sedative was beginning to kick in, and wriggled to get more comfortable.

At 9:42am, his eyes snapped open again and he doubled up as he felt a sharp pain in his swollen abdomen. He gasped with the agony of it, but he couldn't force out a cry any louder than that.

He froze like that, letting it die away; but then it was back, bigger and badder, and no sooner had _that_ pain died away than it was followed by another…

He doubted that this had anything to do with what Cyborg had injected him with.

They couldn't be _contractions_, because he didn't have a womb, and he couldn't give birth to them.

He had a feeling that the "babies" were just sick of being inside him and wanted out.

And weren't going to wait for Cyborg to cut him open to _get_ out.

Help. He needed help.

He tried to scream for it, but his mouth had gone dry and his voice stuck in his throat – all he could manage was a weak strangled croak.

Water.

He heaved himself off the bed and struggled across the room, the weight and pain of his stomach combined hindering him immensely; he got to the water dispenser, shakily grabbing himself a plastic cup and filling it with trembling hands.

He grimaced against another stabbing pain, drinking long and deep, although spilling half of it down him—

The far window suddenly exploded, showering hot metal and wood and glass across the sick bay. Instinctively shielding his face with his arm, the pain of the little monsters in his belly was forgotten for the moment.

Lowering his arm, Robin looked up to find, advancing on him through the smoke…

Four of Chang's minions, the florescent lights glinting eerily off the surfaces of their opaque goggles.

Panicking, he knew he was in no fit state to fight them this time; his stomach was swollen and heavy, he was in pain and he was only half-conscious.

_Run!_ His brain screamed at him.

Scrambling to his feet, Robin ran as fast as he could towards the door – which wasn't very fast at all. He couldn't keep his balance very well due to his stomach, and his legs were beginning to go dead from the sedative.

He slammed up against the door and slid down it, nearly out. His utility belt wouldn't fit around his waist (obviously) and so he was without his communicator. He was too weak to scream, too sleepy to reach up for the door handle and get out of the room.

He slid right to the floor, his vision blacking out as he saw two of them leaning over him.

"No…" he protested weakly, only vaguely aware that the other two had grasped him under each arm and hauled him to his knees.

His head dropped against his chest and he was out of it, struggling against the darkness and drowsiness he had welcomed only a few minutes before.

But only a few minutes before he had been in safe hands.

He wasn't anymore.

**TT**

Robin awoke to more white walls and painful florescent lights.

At first he thought that maybe the pains, the explosion and the ambush – _his kidnap_ – had been a very bad dream, and that he was simply awaking now in the sick bay following Cyborgs' removal of his "little darlings".

His assumption of this was perhaps cemented when he looked down his body and was able to see his feet – his bump was gone, and _that_ meant…

…so were the _monsters_.

But then, on further examination, he realized that he was also strapped down, which somewhat doused his joyful theory somewhat.

Just to add insult to injury, he _then_ realized that the person leaning over him was not Cyborg; or Raven; or Beast Boy, or Starfire.

It was Professor Chang.

"Ah, you return to consciousness?"

Robin's eyes narrowed and he began to strain against the broad leather straps holding him down to the… bed?

One across his chest, one across his (flat) stomach, one across his thighs, one across his ankles. There were wrist restraints, too, so that he could not work his hands up and loosen up the buckles.

"_Professor Chang_," he hissed. "I knew you were behind this."

"Obviously." Professor Chang looked wounded. "Do you not wish to thank me?" He patted Robin's now-flat stomach. "I have dealt with your little – or should I say _big_ – problem…"

"_You're_ the one that _put_ them there!" Robin spat.

"Ah, true, true…"

The elderly professor grinned, flashing his crooked teeth; then stepped away from… wherever it was that Robin was restrained.

"Get back here!" Robin demanded angrily, struggling against the straps again; he turned his head, trying to follow Chang's movements – but being so restricted in his movement, he quickly lost sight of him.

Robin sighed and gave up. He looked around as much as he could, taking in what he could see. It was another lab, but a much bigger one this time – he could see that, because all of Chang's hideous specimens in their glass tubes and tanks were all against one wall instead of scattered all over the place.

"Here we are, my good little boy…" Chang was back leaning over Robin again, and he was pushing a metal trolley, on which was a large glass tank.

The tank was filled with water, and swimming in that water—

"Would you like see your "babies"?" Chang asked sweetly, gesturing at the tank. He reached over, unbuckling the strap at Robin's chest so that he could partway sit up – his hands and the rest of him remained restrained.

Robin bolted upright, aghast by the unsightly things that had allegedly been inside him.

As he had suspected, they were pretty small; but boy, were they _hideous_. The tiny thing he had found on the street had been ugly enough, but somewhat pathetic with it, so that he hadn't feared it.

_These_ things…

He felt faint knowing that they had been swarming in his belly. They were long in body, with short thick necks and long pointed faces; and had cruel little mouths, each with two rows of bottom teeth – tiny and pointed. Like the other creature, they had two long spindly arms ending with webbed hands, and the lower body faded into a long whip-like tail rather than back legs. _Unlike_ the other creature, they had spine-like fins down their backs and tails, and a fish-like fin at the end of said tails. Their eyes were not large and bulbous like those of that other pathetic creature – they were at the front of their faces, and were tiny and slit-like; shiny black. They had gills too, at either side of their short necks; and their colour was a sort of slimy grayish-white.

He wildly tried to count them, but there were too many and they didn't stay still either, and so he was sure that he was counting the same ones two and three times…

He made a rough guess at around forty.

Which was _way_ too many for his liking.

Actually, _one_ was too many for his liking.

"Those were…?" He trailed off, his voice failing him. "There's… so many…"

"Oh, this only half," Chang replied airily.

"_What_?" Robin was even _more_ horrified.

"Oh yes, I was unable to fit them all into one tank. As you said, there are _so many_…"

"H-how… many _are_ there?"

"I cannot count them all. I would say… roughly, about ninety, perhaps a few more…"

_Oh god…_

Robin fought not to pass out; looking fiercely away from the tank.

This was just _great_; now _Chang_ had them, and there was no way _he_ was going to be dropping them down the waste disposal. It was difficult for Robin to deal with anyway – the fact that _ninety-odd_ horrible baby monsters had been inside his body. But he would have been a _lot_ happier about it… if they weren't still alive. If he had come around in Titans Tower's sick bay, with Cyborg breaking the news to him that there had been ninety of them, but not to worry, he and the others had dealt with them, and now there were _none_.

He didn't like to think what _Chang_ was going to do with them. They might be small, but they looked perfectly healthy, and furthermore, they looked very aggressive – he noticed that some of them were fighting in the tank. This could _not_ be good; _one_ monster in the marina had been bad enough.

_Two_ was bad news.

_Ten_ was terrible.

_Ninety_?

He didn't even like to _think_ about it.

"Why did you do it?" Robin hissed, hiding a few aces up his sleeve.

"Ah, many, many reasons!" Chang replied earnestly. "First of all, good little boy… I just don't like you."

"That's a given," Robin said icily.

"Oh? Well, then… it was an experiment. All of my creations have been grown in tubes and bio-plasmic substances, but it is a long and slow process. I was curious as to how well they would grow and develop inside a living body. I have tried a few animals… some stray cats I found on the street, some rats…"

"Do I look like a _lab rat_ to you?" Robin spat angrily.

"No, no, not at all… which was _why_ I used you." Chang beamed at him. "Different creatures have slightly varying inner body temperatures. I was planning to use a human host… perhaps one of my minions, or perhaps a girl taken from the street. You know, offer her a bit of money to be part of an experiment…"

"You're sick."

"I'm a scientist."

"Wouldn't a _girl_ have been a better specimen?" Robin asked carefully.

"At this point, my experiment was only to discover how well they grow in a human body regarding the inner temperature. At a later date I will use a female – _you_ have proved, my good little boy, that they grow very well at thirty-seven degrees. I wonder now if they will grow even better within a female's womb…"

Robin could feel his blood running cold as he remembered the notes he had taken from Chang's desk only a few days ago.

The large circled "37".

Which, he realized now, stood for "37 degrees". The constant human body temperature.

"Well, just as I was planning how to find myself a human test subject," Chang was babbling on, "_you_ walked in. A perfect candidate – young and healthy."

"You _injected_… whatever-it-was into me?"

"Nono_NO_!" Chang sounded hysterical. "The injection was merely a sedative to knock you out. I made a small incision into your belly and put a nesting female of my creation into you; she would have laid her eggs inside you, then died. I removed her carcass when I opened you up to take out the babies."

Again, Robin was overwhelmed with nausea, but pushed it back down. So there had been, along with _ninety_ _living_ monsters, a _dead_ one in there too?

_Gross_…

The thought of something laying eggs inside him disgusted him further – and not just one or two eggs. _Loads_ of eggs.

_Ninety_-_odd_ eggs.

Professor Chang had put some pregnant creature inside him with the _intention_ of it laying an entire _nestful_ of eggs in his belly.

"Well, you know yourself how well and how quickly they grew," Chang went on cheerily. "12 hours to begin hatching, and just 32 hours for them to reach maturity. They had already begun making their own way out when I opened you up."

Robin shuddered; thinking of _Alien _again.

"And what are you going to _do_ with them all?" He asked shakily, beginning to lose his cool masque.

"Experiment on some, breed others, and maybe release the rest from captivity…" Chang drew circles on the surface of the tank, looking at the creatures affectionately. "Because it isn't fair to keep all of you shut up when you could be swimming free in the marina, is it?…"

A few of them snapped and bolted at the glass threateningly.

"You wouldn't _dare_!" Robin hissed.

Chang looked back at him, smirking.

"Haven't you learned by now, good boy… that I am a _bad man_? Your pretty little friend seemed to have picked up on it lot more quickly…"

"The Titans… we'll _stop_ you! _I'll_ stop you!"

"Perhaps you will." Chang shrugged, snapping his gloved fingers. "But first, as a new "mother", I think you should feed your babies…"

Chang's minions really did seem to be everywhere. Here were more now, clustering around the… he realized that it was a metal table he had been strapped to.

Anyway, they unbuckled him and hauled him off, setting him upright onto his feet, two clutching each of his arms, a fifth at his back with what he assumed was a laser weapon – it certainly felt like the muzzle of one pressing into his spine.

And his jeans (Cyborg's jeans) were falling down now that he didn't have either the swollen belly or a belt to hold them up anymore. He hoped that they didn't fall down – he had a feeling that they were going to – but if they _did_, it hardly mattered, as Cyborg's grey sweatshirt was so huge it fell almost to his knees.

"You think I should bottle or breast-feed them, Professor?" Robin asked Chang sarcastically as the minions began to push him past towards the far end of the laboratory. "And really; which milk brand _is_ the best for bottle-feeding, anyway?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about _milk_," Chang replied chirpily. "Your _blood_ will suffice just fine…"

Robin was caught completely off guard.

"_What_?"

He started to struggle against the minions holding him, but the muzzle of the laser gun was jabbed into his spine, making him stop.

"Come along," Chang went on, walking ahead with the trolley and the tank. "I think they are hungry."

At the far wall – lined with bookshelves – Chang stopped, leaving the trolley in the middle of the floor. He went to one of the shelves and swept all of the books off onto the floor, revealing a small lever; pulling it, he stepped back as there was a rumbling from somewhere beyond the wall. This was explained as the entire wall slid aside, revealing the biggest glass tank Robin had ever seen outside of a shark aquarium.

It was half-filled with water, and swimming in the vastness of it were Robin's other fifty "babies".

There was a flight of steps located to the right-hand side of the tank, leading right up to the open top, which was obviously how Chang had put them in.

And Robin had a sinking (and no pun intended – he grimaced; something he had never grown out of…) feeling that he and the other forty "bundles of joy" were about to be joining them.

"Put them in," Chang ordered, pointing at the much smaller tank filled with the second half of the monsters. Two additional lackeys came forward and hoisted the tank up between them, carrying it carefully up the steep stairway. Once at the top they overturned it, tipping the rest of the baby monsters and their water into the huge tank to join their brothers and sisters.

"And now the boy," Chang went on snappily.

Robin tried to dig his heels into the ground, but it didn't get him very far as he was barefoot. He tried struggling, only to get the gun jabbed into him again – and every time he moved too much, he got a stabbing pain in his stomach; obviously where Chang had cut him open and then sewed him back up again.

And so he was dragged unwillingly up the steps and held for a few moments at the edge of the tank, looking down in utter terror and disgust at the writhing slithering mass of those horrible creatures that the warmth of his body had given life to.

Panicking all over again, he tried to twist out of their grip; remedying that, he was thrown in, flailing desperately before hitting the water and going right under. He kicked upwards, pushing against the swarm of them, and smacking some of them away from him as he broke the surface. Pushing his sopping hair from his eyes, he desperately looked up and saw that there was a glass panel sliding across the open top of the tank, sealing him in.

"The _government_ paid for this?" He yelled at Chang through the glass, grabbing one of the baby monsters and throwing it against the clear wall.

Chang grinned toothily.

"In one way or another…"

Turning his attention back to his very big problem, Robin tried not to panic. They were all swimming at him, eager to sink their tiny teeth into him. _One_ of them wouldn't have been a problem, or two, or…

_Ninety_-against-one were _so_ not good odds.

He batted them away as best he could, using his superior size and strength against theirs. They actually couldn't really get at him too well; his oversized sweater and jeans proved to be a good barricade against them.

And then he felt something cold and hard brush against his leg under the water. He dived under for it – it definitely wasn't a baby monster…

He grasped hold of whatever-it-was and kicked back up to the surface again. Pushing his hair out of his face once more, he checked out his find.

The laser gun. It had fallen into the tank with him when he had tried to twist out of their grip and they had hurriedly pushed him in.

Robin smiled.

"Hasta la vista, "babies"…"

**TT**

_…And an Arnie Schwarzenegger line to finish up there…_

_Well, the Titans are hot on his trail, and will be flying to the rescue next chapter!_

_And yes, the next chapter is also the last one. Be here for the last installment, y'all!_

_TTYS!_

_- RobinRocks xXx_


	6. VI

Well, well, well, here we are – the sixth and final chapter of _Monsters in the Closet_. And what a crazy lil' ride it's been. I would like to thank each and every one of you who has joined me in the revealing of this mad little tale, whether you just read or read and reviewed. Hopefully you have enjoyed it! If nothing else, it is at least something different…

…And I haven't had one bad review at all for it, so… _yay_!

Thankyou to; **Narroch06 **(well, this chapter has the most "action" in it… and yeah, he wasn't "pregnant". He was an incubator, basically…); **Depths of Passion **(Chang's reactions are right down below for you. I am glad you have enjoyed this – although I should have known…); **Nightlark **(thanks for the compliments on the writing! Hope you like how it ends!); **iRebel **(oh, I see… it's iPod, not _I, Robot_… in fact, I think I spelt I, Robot wrong last time…I think I spelt it like iPod… "iRobot"… oh, well… I am glad you have enjoyed this, anyhow!); **Crazy Insomniac **(c'mon, Robin has a laser gun and… well, he's _Robin_! You know he's gonna make out just fine! And yeah, gotta love that _Terminator_ line…); **Beanrox **(loved how articulately you summed up this fic: "One kid with a laser gun against ninety-or-so… mutant fish…"; Perfectly put!And the Titans are back this chapter); **Kazuni **(of course this fic is gross; and yeah, I think we'd all scream… But Robin, he's a bit stubborn, no? Heh heh… "Mommy-Robin to the Rescue!"; that made me laugh… And you'll get to see Chang getting his ass busted this chapter!); **Crazy Girl Person **(well, you gotta keep an eye on Star and BB, right? With that Silkie thing… glad you liked the _Terminator_ line too!); **RavenWriter89 **(uh, well, he probably would have notice, but he was busy those last few days trying to catch Chang, so…); **Coolteenzz **("Hasta la vista" is definitely Spanish and I _think_ it means "goodbye"… Narroch06 would be able to confirm that one… "Hasta la vista, babies" is a play on the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger line from _Terminator_); and **Natalie Stiles **(it wasn't over last chapter, but it is now!).

Enjoy the last chapter, guys (including you, Quinn, wherever you are…)!

_Monsters in the Closet – _VI

"You reckon he did this himself?" Beast Boy asked, looking around the demolished sick bay. "Busted out and ran for it?"

"Why would he?" Raven asked drolly. "Robin wants those things out of him, and Cyborg is the only one who can do it. Besides, even if he _did_ make a sudden dash for it, he wouldn't get very far; he's been injected with a sedative."

"Ray's right," Cyborg agreed grimly. "Why would he run? Running isn't going to get them out of him… and anyway, he knows he's in good hands."

"Then where has he gone?" Starfire demanded shrilly. "We must locate him! He is in no fit state to…" She trailed off, not knowing how to finish that sentence.

"Gotta agree with the lady," Cyborg said gravely. "Sooner we find him, the better."

"It looks to me like he was kidnapped," Raven pointed out.

"I think we're all thinking the same thing, Ray," Cyborg replied. "And if Professor Chang put those things _into_ Robin, then I'm guessing that's where we should start looking…"

"But how are we to locate him?" Starfire questioned worriedly. "Robin, Raven and I attempted to find and apprehend the Professor Chang only a few days ago, only to find that he had quite escaped our reach."

"Starfire is right," Raven stated. "He's disappeared, moved to a new location. We couldn't find him. As Robin said, it could be weeks before—"

"Ah-ah-ah, not so fast!" Cyborg reprimanded the empath for the second time in two days. "Who said we were looking for _Chang_…?"

"If you mean that we should attempt to find _Robin_ instead, I still don't understand how you plan to do it," Raven said icily. "He isn't wearing his belt for obvious reasons, and so his tracking device is useless to us, as is his communicator…"

Cyborg actually grinned faintly as he held up the bio-plasmic tracking device.

"As long as he has those "babies" inside of him, we can get a lock on him. They aren't very big, but there are so many of them, the reading is extremely high…"

"And if they _aren't_ still inside him?"

"This will lead us to _them_ rather than to _him_." Cyborg frowned worriedly at her. "Do you sense something, Ray? What makes you think…?"

"I do not sense anything, Cyborg," Raven said quietly, pulling up her hood. "I just have a bad feeling…"

The other three Teen Titans all looked at each other warily; finally Cyborg flipped on the tracking device.

"I think we'd better get moving…"

**TT**

Still treading water, Robin first trained the laser beam on the glass walls of his watery prison; receiving for his pains the beam ricocheting off the surface instead of burning a hole through it as he had hoped. It bounced up, hit the ceiling, angled down, hit the opposite wall and then finally made its way down to the water, frying one of the babies to a crisp.

He smiled icily at the sight of its tiny smoking body floating on the surface of the water and immediately turned the weapon on the rest of them when he realized it wasn't going to be able to get him out of the tank.

He had already received a few bites from some of them; and also, he had had them inside him and it had not been at all pleasant.

He felt no remorse as he turned them into fried fishsticks. No remorse at all.

He had around 30 smoking little carcasses floating around him on the water's surface before Chang idly glanced up from his desk and discovered what the Boy Wonder was doing to his precious creations; and the Boy Wonder in question was just noting to himself that these vile creatures were as dumb as they were ugly – no matter how many he fried, the rest of them kept attacking heedlessly, as though they couldn't seem to link the laser weapon in his hand with the crispy corpses of their siblings.

"No, _NO_!" Chang screamed, scrambling from his desk. "You're supposed to _die_, boy!"

Robin chucked one of the burnt carcasses at the glass; it thudded against the hard surface and slid down, and Robin smiled as Chang made a strangled sound at the sight of it.

"I'm not really one for sushi, Chang," he said, his voice laced with venom. "I don't know about you, but I prefer my fish _cooked_…"

He scorched another two for good measure while Chang watched and shrieked.

"No! My creations!" The little professor wailed. "My human-birthed creations! My _research_!"

Robin fried one that was trying to bite his hand without even looking at it; his gaze was fixed on Chang.

"You've got a choice, Chang," he said smoothly. "You can let me out now and you'll still have some left, or you can leave me in here with them and I'll kill every last one of them."

"Oh, you think so, good boy?" A grin cracked across Chang's wizened face.

There was something about his tone and that crooked grin that Robin didn't like, but he picked up one of the scorched baby monsters and dangled it like a pendulum by its tail to show that he meant business.

"If you think I'm gonna pull some kind of maternal shtick any second now and cradle them to my chest, you're gonna be bitterly disappointed," he snapped. "They're slimy, they're hideous, they bite and most importantly, they're _monsters_." He angrily threw the dead creature aside. "You've got another thing coming if you think I'm gonna start _naming_ them…"

"I don't expect anything else from you, boy," Chang replied bitterly. "Only to feed your hungry little babies…"

"They are _not_ my _babies_!" Robin yelled at him. "They're _monsters_ that have no place in this world! You have no right to tamper with nature's laws like this! _These things should not exist_!"

"But they _do_, and you may not have "conceived" them in the way that a female conceives a child, but it was _your_ body that _gave_ them life – the temperature that allowed them to develop, hatch and grow. You feel no kind of bond with them at all?"

"There's definitely a bond between them and the _laser gun_," Robin replied pleasantly, keeping his boiling rage under the surface of his icy-cool façade. "And I'm going to keep on _enforcing_ that bond unless you let me out. You want them all dead, you keep at it, because I'm not stopping…"

"I think you will…" Chang was at the wall and flipping another switch.

"What…?" Robin heard a sudden mechanical grinding sound and looked around wildly; even the babies stooped attacking him to look around curiously.

The source of the noise became clear as he saw, below the water's surface at either side of the tank, metal vents, their panels sliding back.

He had another of those sinking (terrible, _terrible_ pun) feelings…

There was another sound – this one sounding like an explosive gushing, and then—

The volume of the water in the tank suddenly began to rise as more water was forced in from outside through the vents, pushing him, the remaining alive babies and the dead ones too higher and higher.

He remembered that the top of the tank was closed off.

And realized that Chang wasn't going to wait around for either the baby monsters to kill him or vice versa – he was simply going to drown him.

Chang rubbed his gloved hands together gleefully as he watched the Boy Wonder begin to panic.

"…You see, good boy… you and your pointy-eared friend are not the only ones who keep aces up their sleeves…"

**TT**

"You think this is it?" Beast Boy asked, his green eyes wide.

"Well, the tracking device is going absolutely _crazy_," Cyborg replied pointedly. "It can't even _record_ the bio-plasmic levels this place is giving off… So either someone _else_ is playing Dr Frankenstein too, or we've found Chang's lab."

"I'd say we've found Chang's lab," Raven intoned drolly. "This place just gives off that whole "mad scientist's lab" vibe…"

"Good call," was all Beast Boy could say in reply, his pointed green ears dipping in awe as he looked up at the building again.

She was right; the place practically screamed "Mad Scientist's Laboratory" – a big neon sign with an accompanying flashing arrow couldn't have made it any clearer.

It looked as though it was another abandoned building, although in much better nick than the run-down building in the middle of Jump City – it did, however, look pretty precarious with its placement. It was part of an old water turbine – the big metal wheel was churning now, whirling water fiercely around and around even though – since it was out of use – there was no need for it to be. The lab itself was located at the very top of a rather rickety-looking building that was attached and reached much higher than the turbine in its big vat. It was altogether an unusual combination – a laboratory and a water turbine attached to each other.

But then, Professor Chang was an unusual little man. Seriously, who impregnated a teenaged boy with baby killer sea monsters?

And most importantly, it _did_ give off that whole "mad scientist's lab" vibe.

"I am in agreement with Beast Boy and Raven also," Starfire said finally, taking to the air. "Come, let us venture forth and rescue our friend!"

"You got it, Star," Cyborg replied, putting the tracking device away and busting out his proton cannon. "But I think we should make our big entrance through the front door."

"Does it _really_ matter?" Raven asked, rolling her eyes.

"Absolutely." Cyborg grinned. "Storming a place always looks _so_ much more impressive if you bust the front door down…"

"Yeah, Raven," Beast Boy added dryly. "_Duh_…"

**TT**

The clear glass roof of the tank was getting nearer and nearer – and Robin knew that his air supply was getting shorter and shorter with it. He ignored the baby monsters now – even as they still bit and tore at his skin and clothes – firing the laser weapon upwards towards the corners of the tank, hoping to melt through the joints. So far he wasn't getting anywhere, and the top was just getting nearer still.

He thought back to that time when he, Raven and Starfire had been stuck inside a flooding closed-off room inside Brother Blood's second Hive Academy building. The situation had been exceedingly similar – but then he had had both Raven and Starfire with him, not to mention his utility belt.

They had simply _blown_ their way out.

That wasn't an option this time around – he was alone and dressed in a sweater and jeans that were both too big for him. The heavy loose material of both garments was dragging him under the water as he struggled to tread it – it had been a lot easier to keep afloat when wearing his skintight lightweight uniform.

As for the belt… it was something else he had had to forgo temporarily because of his growing belly. Had he realized that he was going to be kidnapped, he would have kept it with him anyway, but you just couldn't predict these things…

So he was gadgetless, weaponless and _hopeless_. The laser weapon wasn't doing a thing, and the clothes, the painful stitches in his stomach and the monsters attacking him weren't doing him any favors. He went under a few times and kept struggling back up to the surface, only to find that the ceiling of the tank was that little bit closer than it had been before.

Professor Chang sat in his chair at his metal desk, with his gloved hands pressed together, enjoying the show; every now and then he would offer a gleeful little chuckle.

Ignoring him, Robin found that he was being pushed right up against the ceiling; he pressed his hands against it, pushing with all of his strength, but of course it didn't budge at all.

He wasn't Superman.

But Superman wouldn't be in this situation anyway – he would have punched his way out of the tank a long time ago.

There was hardly any air left at all now – he took one last deep desperate breath before the water completely filled the tank, the pressure pushing him under.

Knowing he was going to die, he figured it couldn't hurt to kill a few more of his "babies" before he completely drowned, and turned the laser on them. He shot a few, killing them instantly, and then the rest of them seemed to wise up and scattered. He didn't get any further in chasing them, not noticing that the tank had begun to crack under the pressure of the water that hadn't stopped flowing into it—

The entire doorway blew open, making the whole laboratory shake and shudder with the impact. Before the smoke had even cleared Starfire had come arcing through it, her eyes and hands blazing fiery jade; Raven and Beast Boy in hawk form weren't far behind, and Cyborg brought up the rear, his proton cannon blistering too.

"Teen Titans, _go_!" Cyborg ordered, even though it was not a necessary instruction.

Starfire, searching for Robin, soon found him flailing in the tank, beginning to lose consciousness; she fired up a starbolt between both hands and tore it through the tank—

"NO!" Professor Chang screamed; as soon as the starbolt touched the tank the entire thing exploded outwards under both the radiation of her alien power and the water pressure.

The entire lab shuddered again as the wave crashed into the far wall, the sheer weight and power of it smashing all of the tanks and tubes lined up there. Water, monsters and bio-plasmic fluids combined in a tsunami which burst a hole in the wall of the lab. The macabre cocktail of all three began to pour out of the hole, which widened and widened under the increasing pressure until finally the entire wall gave way and the floor cracked in half—

Robin plunged screaming over the edge of the drop with shards of glass, his remaining "babies" and all that water; until Starfire swept down and grasped hold of him, flying back up with him. He looked down and saw the turbine whirring below, towards which everything was falling – water, bio-residue and monsters alike.

He looked away, as did Starfire, as the whole lot hit the turbine and everything – living, dead or object – was instantly shredded to pieces.

All of Chang's creations, destroyed in moments.

They heard Chang's forlorn and angry scream of utter despair from somewhere behind them; Starfire flew right the way back up into the shaking laboratory – or _lack_ _of_, considering that all of the experiments and research had just become one big smoothie.

"Wretched interfering children!" Chang shrieked, near-hysterical; he was twisting in Cyborg's grip. "All of my creations! _Look what you've done!_"

"I'm looking," Beast Boy said cheerfully, reverting back to his human form. And indeed, he did look around; there was water all over the floor, a huge crack where part of the floor itself had fallen away, and an entire wall missing. Half of the glass tank remained intact – the other half had been pretty much turned back into sand by the turbine below.

Most importantly, there was not a monster in sight.

"And I don't see any mutated fishsticks," he went on, scratching the tip of one of his pointy ears. "Which, dude, is _totally_ a good thing."

Starfire landed, putting Robin down; the soaked Boy Wonder pushed his hair right back out of his eyes and hitched up his massive jeans, which were falling right the way down with the weight of the water. He looked utterly pathetic – the size of the garments on his small frame was especially apparent now that they were wet and hung on him, and his ebony hair was flat and shapeless and plastered to his skull.

Starfire needn't have bothered putting him down, as she swept him into a tight hug as soon as he was back on his feet anyway.

"You are unharmed!" She cried happily. "And you are thin again!"

Beast Boy pushed her aside on hearing that, wrenching up Robin's sweatshirt and being met with Robin's perfectly flat stomach, adorned by a line of blue stitches.

"Hey, where are your bouncing bundles of joy?" The shape-shifter asked, prodding the stitches.

"Ow!" Robin smacked him away. "They're in about fifty pieces each… which, I have to say, is a good look for them."

"Ugly little monsters, huh?"

"_Ugly_ doesn't even come close…"

Robin heaved a sigh, not sure whether he should be pleased by how things had turned out or not. On one hand, all of the monsters had been dealt with – destroyed, every last one of them, which was a _good_ thing. But on the other hand… they didn't have any evidence against Chang now. Everything was gone and Cyborg and Beast Boy had disposed of the one in the marina too. And if they had no evidence to link him with the monster in the marina, the authorities wouldn't be able to hold him.

Professor Chang would walk free.

"Great work over there, Star," Cyborg complimented the alien princess weakly. "You destroyed the entire lab all by yourself within the space of about twenty seconds…"

Starfire smiled prettily.

"Although the unfortunate creatures met rather a gruesome end, I believe it was for the best?"

Raven shrugged, taking her hood down.

"At least there aren't any left for Beast Boy to keep as a pet…"

"Robin, you okay?" Cyborg asked. Robin nodded and smiled.

"I'll live." His turned his gaze on Professor Chang, who was now simply dangling limply in Cyborg's grip. "We should take him down anyway, even though we don't have anything on him…"

"This isn't over, good little boy!" Chang screeched, coming back to life again.

"Maybe not," Robin agreed, twirling the laser gun – which he had managed to cling onto – around his finger. "But it's close enough. If you want to play Dr Frankenstein, Chang, you'll have to start over…"

He smirked.

"…And believe me when I say that the Titans aren't going to make it easy for you…"

He nodded to Cyborg, who turned and dragged Chang from the laboratory; Raven and Beast Boy followed, and he and Starfire started after them.

Robin socked one fist into his other palm in frustration.

"I can't believe we didn't get any evidence," he muttered.

"What exactly do you mean by "evidence"?" Starfire asked curiously.

"Oh, you know… a few of his specimens or bio-plasmic samples… What I have back at the Tower isn't adequate enough to have him put down for very long…"

"A specimen?"

"Yeah, you know, one of his creations…"

"Such as the one that is clinging to your sweatshirt?"

He blinked and stopped dead.

"What?"

"Here." Starfire reached out and plucked it off, holding it out.

It was one of his "babies".

It writhed and flailed in her hand and he recoiled from it instinctively.

"Y-yeah, like that…" He didn't know whether to be relieved or not.

He decided that it was a _good_ thing that one had survived – but he still didn't want to touch it.

Starfire didn't seem to mind its aggressive demeanor or repulsive appearance, and so he used it to his advantage.

"Hold onto it for me, Star, until we get back to the Tower."

"Alright." Starfire giggled at it. "Actually, I think it is rather cute. After we have used it to lock up the Professor Chang, might I be allowed to-?"

Robin glared at her, the look alone cutting her off sharply.

"_No_."

**TT**

Alone in the Evidence Room of Titans Tower, Robin shut the lid of the glass case in which he had displayed the laser gun, the sheet of notes from Chang's original laboratory and the dissection tool. The first creature had been incinerated as it was beginning to rot, and the second – his "baby"…

Well, it was in the hands of the authorities now. It had been handed over in a water-filled plastic tub to the police station, along with Chang, who was sporting Cyborg's new design of electronic handcuffs.

And quite frankly, Robin was glad to see the backs of the pair of them. He was really starting to detest Professor Chang and had already vowed never to underestimate him again; even the Zinothium cannon had not fazed him as much as the events of the past few days had.

He shuddered. Mad scientists. Between Professor Chang, one-time botanist Pamela Isley (now Poison Ivy) and Professor Jonathon Crane (now the Scarecrow), he had to admit that he did not want for their kind _at all_.

Back in his uniform, he thought that it was safe to admit that everything was pretty much back to normal. He was slim again, Raven had removed the stitches from his belly earlier that day and had healed him up herself, and Cyborg had checked him over with the bio-plasmic tracking device.

It didn't register a thing.

Just as it _should_.

"I'm guessing you aren't going to be putting in a subscription to _Mother and Baby_, then?"

Robin turned to find Cyborg entering the Evidence Room behind him.

He smiled faintly.

"No, I guess I can cancel it now…"

Cyborg grinned; but then his grin faded.

"Robin, man… I'm sorry about… what he did to you…"

Robin shrugged.

"There was nothing you could have done to stop it."

"I know, but… well, I just… think that you handled it really well… It would have _freaked me out_."

"It freaked me out too, Cy." He shivered at the memory of it. "I don't understand how women do it willingly."

"It's not the same. Their bodies are designed for it, they have a maternal instinct built into them, and…"

"…They're carrying a _human child_," Robin finished. "Yeah, not freaking _monsters_…"

"How many were there, exactly?" Cyborg pressed. "You said there were a lot when Beast Boy asked earlier, but you were kinda… vague…"

"Ninety-odd, apparently. Too many to count, anyway…"

"Ni- _what_?" Cyborg sounded aghast. "_Ninety_?"

"Something like that…"

"You had _ninety_ of those… _things_… like the one we gave in to the police… you had _ninety_ of them inside you?"

"Afraid so." Robin was becoming rapidly bored with the conversation.

Cyborg looked at his friend, admiring the ice-like façade he always managed to front.

"Yeez, and you're not in shock?" Cyborg shook his head. "You're one weird little guy, you know, but I guess there's a _reason_ they call you the Boy Wonder. Anyone else would be rocking in the corner…"

"Cy, if I went into shock that easily I'd have been put into an insane asylum _years_ ago. You think you know "crazy"? Try a week out on patrol with Batman in Gotham and you'll know what crazy is…"

"You've been through _crazier_ things than being impregnated with ninety baby monsters?"

"That was a _different_ kind of crazy…"

"What, you have some kind of scale?"

Robin grinned.

"Something like that…" He yawned. "Jeez, I'm tired. I think I'm gonna hit the sack…"

"It's only 9:00pm."

"Hey, I've had a hard day. Gimme a break…"

His communicator went off at that very second; Robin pulled it curiously, flipping it open.

"Or give you a break-_in_," Cyborg commented, leaning over his shoulder.

Robin sighed unhappily; totally what he didn't need, not right now when all he wanted to do was fall into bed and go to sleep.

"Trouble," he said wearily. "Don't I get maternity leave or something?"

"Clearly not," Cyborg replied. "C'mon, we'd better get the others…"

"Right."

Robin snapped his communicator shut and ran out of the Evidence Room after Cyborg.

**TT**

"_So_…"

Cyborg trailed off as he looked over at Robin; the two of them were taking refuge behind a bus, while Starfire and Raven were ducked underneath a shop window and Beast Boy was hiding under a rock in beetle form.

All to avoid the projectiles of mayonnaise and custard that were being fired all over the street by an army of wind-up gerbils, stuffed pandas and rubber chickens, all animated by the wacky magic of the Amazing Mumbo.

_Not_ the most desirable way to spend your Friday night.

But Cyborg grinned.

"…Exactly where does _this_ rate on your "Crazy Scale"?…"

**END**

Well, once again, huge thanks to everyone who read and reviewed; I hope you all enjoyed it! Big thankyou to all reviewers, both those who have reviewed; and a thankyou in advance to those of you who now review this, the last chapter of _Monsters in the Closet_!

It's been fun (for us, anyway; not for Robin…)!

Look, the guy has been around for 66 years; and here's to many more years of torturing him!

Whoo!

- RobinRocks xXx


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